Description |
If naturally occurring santolina alcohol is derived from chrysenthemyl pyrophosphate as hypothesized by Epstein and Poulter and as the foregoing evidence suggests, the absolute configuration at C3 of chrysanthemyl pyrophosphate should be retained when the cyclopropane ring is opened. Naturally occurring derivatives of chrysanthemol are not known, but if chrysanthemic acid is an oxidation product of chrysanthemyl pyrophosphate which retains configuration at C1 and C3, both chrysenthemol and santolina alcohol should have the same absolute configuration at C as a corollary to the proposed biosynthetic mechanism. Determination of the absolute configuration of naturally occurring santolina alcohol should be helpful in resolving whether or not it is possible in living systems for chrysanthemyl pyrophosphate to be a precursor of santolina alcohol as outlined in Scheme 3. |