Untersuchungen zur Biosynthese von 2,6-Didesoxy-3-O-methylhexosen in Nerium oleander*

Abstract

¹⁴C-Labelled hexoses, progesterone, glucosyl-adynerine and digitoxigenine-¹⁴C-glucosid were fed to leaves of Nerium oleander L. The incorporation of these substrates into gentiobiosyl-adynerine, a genuine triglycoside, was studied. Glucose seems to be the natural precursor for the sugar chain. Formation of the gentiobiosyl residue was found to occur sequentially. After feeding digitoxigenine-¹⁴C-glucosid to the leaves of Nerium oleander, no turnover of this tentative precursor could be detected. It was concluded that cardenolide-glucosides do not seem to play a role in the biosynthesis of deoxysugars.