1. The molecular composition of Cretaceous ambers: Identification and chemosystematic relevance of 1,6-dimethyl-5-alkyltetralins and related bisnorlabdane biomarkers.
- Author
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Menor-Salván, César, Simoneit, Bernd R.T., Ruiz-Bermejo, Marta, and Alonso, Jesús
- Subjects
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AMBER , *CHEMOTAXONOMY , *LABDANES , *BIOMARKERS , *FOSSIL resins , *ORGANIC solvents , *COMPLEX compounds - Abstract
One of the major components of the organic solvent extractable fraction of Cretaceous ambers is 1,6-dimethyl-5-isopentyltetralin, a compound that has been incorrectly or not identified in previous reports on the molecular composition of Cretaceous ambers. Here, the purification and structural identification of 1,6-dimethyl-5-isopentyltetralin is reported from amber samples of the Cretaceous Peñacerrada II deposit at Peñacerrada, Álava (Basque-Cantabrian Basin, Spain). The structural identification of 1,6-dimethyl-5-isopentyltetralin allowed the complete identification of related compounds, comprising the family of 1,6-dimethyl-5-alkyltetralins. This suggests that those compounds, with concentrations up to 27% of the total organic extract of amber from Peñacerrada, are characteristic for labdane-type biomarkers in Cretaceous fossil resins and their distributions indicate different compositional families, related to their botanical and topographic origin. Also, the name amberene is proposed for the main molecule of this group. The relative proportion of the amberene-type compounds suggests three compositional families for the Cretaceous Spanish ambers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2016
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