Subject triterpenes

Although names and properties of thousands of hydrocarbons and their variously oxidized and rearranged derivatives have been compiled and catalogued (variously complete catalogues that are incomplete when published), the exact number of terpenes (Cio), sesquiterpenes (C15), diterpenes (C20), sesterpenes (C25), triterpenes (C30), carotenoids (C40), and varieties of rubber (e.g., laytex and gutta-percha) is unknown. Similarly, tomes have been written on the subject, and the discussion of these compounds here will end with an introduction to the triterpenes because these serve as sources of steroids (animal) and sterols (plants). 

In other areas of medicinal chemistry the synthesis of the anthracycline oxaunomycin and analogues have been completed by glycosylations, and glucosylation of 11-deoxyprostaglandin E has been reported. The anti-tumour etoposide and the triterpene glycyrrhetic acid are other compounds to have been subject to glucosylation and glucuronosylation, respectively. 

Morgan and Wilkinson (130) described seven compounds that are known to cause sensitization. They noted a further nine woods that give various symptoms of sickness. Among Khaya spp., in particular, nine cases of dermatitis resulted from contact with K, anthotheca. They were able to show (131) in five cases that sensitization was due to the presence of anthothecol, a triterpene derivative. The subjects were sensitive to this compound, and not to the extractive-free wood. They believed that the sensitization to this timber was non-typical and possibly caused by variations in extractive contents of particular K, anthotheca timber. 

---