Widespread Occurrence of Cucurbita-5, 24-dienol in Cucurbitaceae

Abstract

The extracted lipids of 28 seed and mature plant (leaves and stems, pericarp of the fruit, and roots) materials from 11 genera of the family Cucurbitaceae were demonstrated to contain cucurbita-5, 24-dienol, a cucurbitane type Δ⁵-unsaturated 3β-monohydroxy triterpene and present with it in some cases were two Δ⁵-unsaturated pentacyclic 3β-monohydroxy triterpenes, glutinol and simiarenol. Cucurbita-5, 24-dienol is considered to be an important intermediate in the biogenesis of cucurbitacins found in Cucurbitaceae.