Abstract
The presence of sphingomyelin as phospholipid in lower animals is quite rare but characteristic of higher animals. This paper describes isolation and structural characterization of two sphingomyelins, Sph.-1 and Sph.-2 from the parasitic nematode, Ascaris suum. The chemical structures were completely characterized by fatty acid and sphingoid analyses, hydrogen fluoride degradation, acid hydrolysis, enzymatic hydrolysis, infrared analysis and fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry. The ceramide moieties of the sphingomyelins consisted primarily of C22 : 0 and C24 : 0 fatty acids and branched dihydroxy- (C17 : 0 and C19 : 0) and trihydroxy- (C17 : 0) sphingoids for Sph.-1, and 2-hydroxylated (C22 : 0 and C24 : 0) fatty acids and branched dihydroxy- (C17 : 1) and trihydroxy- (C17 : 0) sphingoids for Sph.-2.
