THE OCCURRENCE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF LONG-CHAIN POLYPRENOLS FROM LEAVES OF SAPINDACEAE

A number of species of the Sapindaceae family, characteristic for trop ical flora mainly of South East Asia were found to contain large amoun ts of C-50-75-polyprenols in leaves. C-60-, C-65- and C-70-polyprenols accumulated in leaves of Nephelium litchii and Euphoria longean were isolated, purified and analyzed by mass spectrometry and nuclear magne tic resonance spectrometry. Their structure was found to be of the tri -trans-poly-cis type similar to that of C-55- and C-60-polyprenols occ urring in most angiosperm plants. They differ from the polyprenols of the same chain length isolated from gymnosperm plant (Picea abies) whi ch were confirmed to be di-trans-poly-cis-prenols. The presence of C-6 0-70-polyprenols in leaves is the characteristic chemotaxonomic marker for the majority of studied species of Sapindaceae family.