(2S,4aR,6aR,7R,9S,10aS,10bR)-7-Carb­oxy-2-(3-fur­yl)-6a,10b-dimethyl-4,10-dioxoperhydro­benzo[f]isochromen-9-yl acetate

The asymmetric unit of the title compound, C22H26O8, contains two crystallographically independent mol­ecules with closely comparable conformations (r.m.s. overlay = 0.54 Å for 30 non-H atoms). All six-membered rings display chair conformations, with a slight distortion for the lactone ring. The mol­ecules are connected by O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds into chains along [010], with the independent mol­ecules segregated into separate chains. The two mol­ecules in the asymmetric unit face each other in a head-to-tail fashion, with the furan ring of one mol­ecule turned towards the carboxylic acid terminal of the other mol­ecule

In vitro Studies on Metabolism of Salvinorin A

Microbial transformation of natural products is a well established model for mammalian metabolism. Salvinorin A, a diterpenoid isolated from the hallucinogenic mint Salvia divinorum Epling & Játiva-M (Lamiaceae), is a potent non-nitrogenous κ-opioid receptor agonist. The metabolism of salvinorin A has still not yet been well established. Thirty fungal species were screened for the ability to metabolize salvinorin A. We observed that salvinorin A undergoes fast hydrolysis of the acetate group at carbon atom C2, resulting in formation of the pharmacologically inactive product, salvinorin B. Ex vivo experiments were also performed using organelle fractions isolated from rat liver and brain. Crude tissue homogenate and individual organelles show that the primary route of salvinorin A metabolism is hydrolysis to salvinorin B. No metabolic transformation of salvinorin B was observed in these studies