Dimeric coniferyl alcohol derivative

Dimeric coniferyl alcohol derivative 216 jQ OMe OMe T. sinaicum (Pyrethrum santolinoides) 49... 

This lactone derives from the shikimic acid-cinnamic acid pathway, via oxidative dimerization of coniferyl alcohol. Whereas the presence of yatein itself was not detected in the plants producing steganes, presteganes A and B were isolated in Steganotaenia araliaceae and constitute therefore viable biogenetic precursors [82,83]. 

The alcohols formed from some cinnamic acid derivatives, namely /7-coumaryl alcohol, coniferyl alcohol (LI), and sinapyl alcohol (L2), commonly known as monolignols, undergo dimerization reactions that yield lignans such as (-l-)-pinoresinol (L3), (-l-)-sesamin (L4), (-)-matairesinol (L5), and podophyllotoxin (L6) (Fig. 13). Several thousand lignans are found to occur in nature. Lignins, the structural components of plant cell walls, are polymers of monolignols and/or lignans. 

Similarly, the change in resinols C from being almost entirely derived from sinapyl alcohol in the wild-type to being derived from all three monomers, and p-coumaryl alcohol in particular, in the transgenic plants, is striking. It is logical that sinapyl alcohol monomers find themselves only rarely able to dimerize (with other sinapyl alcohol monomers) in this sinapyl-alcohol-depleted plant, so presumably P-P-cross-couple with coniferyl, and possibly p-coumaryl alcohol studies are... 

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