A study of the chemistry of tutin and its derivatives

Abstract

The determination of the structure of a group of compounds known as the amaroids has baffled chemists for over half a century because of the molecular rearrangements which they readily undergo. The group, which may be considered as oxygen containing derivatives of the bicyclic sesquiterpenes includes The best known member of this series, santonin, is the active principle of the wormseed (flores cinae). The accepted structural formula for this compound resulted from the research work of Clemo (1). The Isolation of picrotoxin, the poisonous content of the berries of the East Indian Creeper (anamirta cocculus), was first achieved by a French apothecary, Boullay (4), but serious chemical study of this substance was delayed until the late nineteenth century.