Abstract
Tetrodotoxin (TTX) is distributed in wide range of animals, marine puffer fish and terrestrial newts and frogs, for examples. We have isolated various TTX analogs from these animals, and attempted to obtain clues to biosynthetic pathway of TTX from the structures of these analogs. Here we isolated four new analogs of TTX from the Okinawan newt Cynops ensicauda popei, and determined their structures as 8-epi-5,6,11-trideoxyTTX, its 4,9-anhydro derivative, its 1-hydroxy derivative, and its 1-hydroxy-4,4a-anhydro derivative, by spectroscopic method. These analogs are not detected in puffer fish, instead, 5,6,11-trideoxyTTX is detected as a major analog in puffer fish eggs. 1-Hydroxy type analog might be specific to newts, since 1-hydroxy-5,11-dideoxyTTX was previously isolated from the other species of newt, Taricha granulosa, by other group. This is the first identification of 4,4a-anhydro type analog of TTX from the natural source.
