ANTINEOPLASTIC AGENTS .294. VARIATIONS IN THE FORMATION OF PANCRATISTATIN AND RELATED ISOCARBOSTYRILS IN HYMENOCALLIS-LITTORALIS

By cloning Hymenocallis littoralis, a practical biosynthetic procedure was developed for producing pancratistatin [1]. The plant tissue cult ure-->greenhouse-->field production sequence was successively utilized for increasing an original 1.5 kg of wild H. littoralis bulbs to some 60,000 bulbs at present. In the central Arizona Sonoran Desert, the t ropical H. littoralis was found to reach a maximum pancratistatin cont ent in October and a minimum in May. Generally pancratistatin [1] was accompanied by lesser yields of narciclasine [2], 7-deoxynarciclasine [3], and 7-deoxy-trans-dihydronarcicasine [4]. Improved laboratory and pilot-plant scale techniques were also developed for the isolation of pancratistatin [1] from difficult-to-separate mixtures of narciclasin e [2] and 7-deoxynarciclasine [3] occurring in H, littoralis.