Oxidative bond cleavage reactions in Nature; mechanistic and ecological aspects

Abstract

Oxidative bond cleavage reactions provide a general pathway to olefinic substructures within biomolecules. The span of individual transformations ranges from the decarboxylation of fatty acids to cleavage reactions of cyclic and acyclic precursors and dealkylations in the field of steroids. Stereochemical studies using deuterium labelled precursors and mass spectroscopic analysis of the metabolites could be used to unravel mechanistic details of the biosynthesis of 1-alkenes in plants and insects, algal pheromones and acyclic homoterpenes without the need for the isolation of enzymes. © 1993 IUPAC