Agaridoxin

Agaridoxin, a strongly autoxidizable substance, was isolated from Agaricus campestris by Szent-Gyorgyi et al. (431) and from A. bisporus (along with L-dopa) by Tsuji et al. (432). The structure of this metabolite was established (431) to be y-L-glutaminyl-3,4-dihydroxybenzene... 

Mass spectroscopy has been used in special cases for structure determinations see for example Ref. (72, 94, 100, 138, 173, 371). Gas chro-matography-mass spectroscopy has been employed in the elucidation of the structure of agaridoxin (525). 

N -(4-Hydroxyphenyl)-L-glutamine (43) can be transformed enzymatically to N -(3,4-dioxocyclohexa-l,5-dien-l-yl)-L-glutamine (44). An enzyme exhibiting tyrosinase activity which catalyzes this transformation has been isolated from Agaricus bisporus and partially purified (369). Agaridoxin (N -(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)-L-glutamine) (45) is believed to be an intermediate in this transformation and is easily autoxidized to give the quinone (323). 

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