Limonoids from the timber of Trichilia heudelottii Planch. ex Oliv.

Abstract

Extraction of the timber of Trichilia heudelottii gave a series of esters of an oxidised triterpene alcohol with formic, acetic, and 2-methylbutyric acids and with unidentified hydroxy-acids. These are referred to as heudelottins. The parent alcohol has been assigned the structure 14β, 15β-epoxy-7α,11 β,12α-trihydroxy-3-oxomeliac-1-ene. The name is based on the furyl cyclopentanophenanthrene meliacan, which is the parent of a number of limonoid triterpenes.