Lunularic acid

Pileostegia vibumoides Hooker f. Thomson Ching Mian Hua (whole plant) Lunularic acid, abscisic acid, quercetin, leucocyanidin.57 Treat arthritis. 

Lumicaerulic acid Lunularic acid Lupenone Lupeol... 

ABA is ubiquitous in higher plants. It has also been identified in gymnosperms, ferns, horsetails, lycopods and mosses, but not in liverworts (3, 39). In the latter group lunularic acid appears to take the place of ABA as a growth inhibitor (3). 

T. Hashimoto, M. Tori, and Y. Asakawa. A highly efficient preparation of lunularic acid and some biological activities of stilbene and dihydrostilbene derivatives. Phytochemistry 27 109 (1988). 

The work described so far has involved extensive international collaboration, but I would like to conclude by returning to Scotland and discussing some compounds isolated from a leafy liverwort Plagiochila spinulosa, a plant described as having an Atlantic distribution (i.e. liking a damp climate) and collected by myself near Glasgow. One of the new compounds isolated, 16, is a close relative of lunularic acid, 17, a growth inhibitor which seems to be ubiquitous in liverworts. 

Lunularic acid (9) is found in most liverworts, and a series of structurally related derivatives are found in mosses and liverworts (Fig. 10.6) (Zinsmeister and Mues, 1987). Earlier reports of lunularic acid in algae need to be confirmed. 

Fig. 10.6. Lunularic acid, prelunularic acid and abscisic acid.

The stilbenoid compound lunularic acid (9) occurs in all liverworts examined thus far and appears to fiilfrll the same growth-regulating function in these plants that abscisic acid... 

Since lunularic acid which is found in the more primitive liverworts and abscisic acid (622) which occurs in mosses and in all higher plants both promote dormancy and inhibit growth in liverworts as well as higher plants, and since the structures of (598) and abscisic acid (622) are similar as shown... 

Lunularic acid (598) has been synthesized in 21% overall yield, as shown in Scheme 68 (9, 10). 

Incorporation experiments proved that lunularin (595) and lunularic acid (598) were biosynthesized by the shikimate-malonate pathway 288, 290). The co-occurrence of (595) and (598), and the presence of a lunularic acid decarboxylase in Lunularia cruciata and Conocephalum conicum indicated that a decarboxylation step was involved in forming naturally occurring C-14 stilbenes and their dihydro products 290, 292). 

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