The optical rotatory behaviour of lycorine and related compounds

Abstract

The optical rotatory dispersion and the circular dichroism curves of lycorine and related compounds have been measured. The considerations of C_2v symmetry and transition of the aromatic chromophore in these compounds allow a general rule to be deduced, like the octant rule, which, for an aromatic α-band relates the sign and magnitude of the Cotton effect to the spatial orientation of atoms about the benzene chromophore. It is shown that the Cotton effects of a number of lycorine derivatives support the general rule.