Complex phytoecdysteroid cocktail ofSilene otites(Caryophyllaceae)

Several new minor ecdysteroids from Silene otites (Caryophyllaceae) have been purified and identified. This plant species had previously been shown to contain a complex ecdysteroid cocktail, with 20-hydroxyecdysone as the major component, and significant amounts of 2-deoxyecdysone, 2-deoxy-20-hydroxyecdysone, and 20-hydroxyecdysone 22-acetate, and a set of minor ecdysteroids. The use of powerful techniques for purification and spectroscopic analyses has now allowed the isolation and identification of more than 30 different molecules including 21-hydroxylated ecdysteroids, thus adding a new position of the carbon skeleton that can be modified in ecdysteroids. Thus, in S. otites, a complex array of individual reactions can be used in various combinations leading both to major and minor components. Deciding whether this represents a random process without biological consequences or if (some of) the various minor components may play a specific role in, e.g., insect-plant relationships, will require the extensive use of appropriate in vitro and in vivo bioassays. Arch. Insect Biochem. Physiol. 41:1–8, 1999. © 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

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