Mikio Yamazaki

Biosynthesis of skimmianine

Abstract Skimmianine isolated from Skimmia plants fed with anthranilic acid- 3 H, acetate-2- 14 C and DL-tryptophan-3- 14 C was shown to be radioactive. Degradation of the labeled skimmianine showed that the radioactivity was located in the benzene ring when anthranilic acid- 3 H was administered, while it was located at the position 3 of quinoline nucleus when acetate-2- 14 C or DL-tryptophan-3- 14 C was used as the labeled precursors. On the basis of these results, a scheme of the biosynthesis of skimmianine was proposed in which skimmianine was shown to be derived from anthranilic acid and acetate.