Characterization of Inositol-containing Phosphosphingolipids from Tobacco Leaves

Abstract

A method for a large scale extraction of phosphoglyco- sphingolipids from the leaves of Nicotiana tabacum L. has been developed. The phosphosphingolipid concentrate consists of a dozen or more polar lipids as judged by thin layer chromatog- raphy. Two of these lipids were purified by chromatography on porous silica beads and partially characterized. These lipids are formulated as: N-acetylglucosamidoglucuronidoinositol phosphorylceramide and glucosamido,glucuronidoinositol phos- phorylceramide. Although not fully characterized, the other lip- ids in the concentrate are inositol-containing phosphosphingo- lipids with a higher carbohydrate content.