Parsley plant, apiose

Fifty years after the discovery of apiose, a review of the literature1 showed that it was still a curiosity, and had been found only in the parsley plant. Apart from its structure, and those of the flavonoids from which it was isolated (primarily, apiin), little else was known about apiose. In the next two decades, this branched-chain sugar was shown to have very widespread occurrence in the plant kingdom, being identified, in most of the plants investigated,4-6 by paper chromatography. 

The parsley plant, Petroselinum crispum, for example, contains at least two of the D-apiose flavonoids, namely, apiin 4, 5-dihydroxy-flavon-7-yl 2-0- [3-C (hydroxymethyl)-/3-D-erythrofuranosyl] -/3-D-glucopyranoside (4) and petroselinin 3, 4, 5-trihydroxyflavon-7-yl 2-0- [3-C-(hydroxymethyl)-/3-D-erythrofuranosyl]-/3-D-glucopyrano-side. 1 The principal compound containing D-apiose in parsley... 

The metabolism of apiose in plants has not been investigated extensively. It has been suggested80 that apiose could give rise to simple terpenes by condensation and reduction. Incubation of [ -,4C]apiose in parsley plants resulted in negligible, but unspecified, amounts of carbon-14 incorporated into apiin.66 The specific activity of the [ -14C]apiose administered was low (5 X 105 d.p.m./jumole) for this reason, the data suggested only that no highly active mechanism is available in parsley for the metabolism of this branched-chain sugar. 

How, M. J., Brimacombe, J. S., and Stacey, M., The Pneumococcal Polysaccharides, 19, 303-357 Hudson, C. S., Apiose and the Glycosides of the Parsley Plant, 4, 57-74 Hudson, C. S., The Fischer Cyanohydrin Synthesis and the Configurations of Higher-carbon Sugars and Alcohols,... 

In recent years branched-chain sugars of comparatively rare occurrence have been isolated from natural sources as examples, apiose from the parsley plant and the leaves and fibres of Posidonia australis (p. 59), hamamelose from the tannin of witch hazel bark, and deoxy branched... 

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