SOME STRUCTURAL FEATURES OF DELCOSINE

The alkaloid delcosine has previously been assigned tentatively the same carbon–nitrogen skeleton as lycoctonine to which it appears to be closely related in properties. Oxidation experiments now reported provide supporting evidence of the presence of two vicinal tertiary hydroxyl groups attached to a five- and a six-membered ring that are directly linked together at the two carbons carrying the hydroxyls. There is a methoxyl in a position β to the tertiary hydroxyl of the six-membered ring. Evidence is also provided as to the size of the heterocyclic ring and the presence of a methylene group next to the nitrogen.