1997 年 45 巻 2 号 p. 344-348
It is generally known that carbamyl phosphate, a precursor of nucleotides, spontaneously degrades to cyanate in organisms. In the present study, we revealed the presence of an alkaline-labile cyanate-derivative in Solanum tuberosum L., which released cyanate in alkaline solution, and elucidated that it was a reaction product of cyanate with dehydroascorbate. The reaction mechanism was revealed as follows : dehydroascorbate existing as a hemiacetal form in neutral aolution reacts with cyanate to produce ultimately a spiro-compound consisted of hemiacetal and oxazolidone rings. The structure of the end product was identified by spectroscopic and X-ray analyses using a synthetic compound. This fact demonstrates that this reaction is a novel metabolic pathway of endogenous cyanate in organisms.
