Organochlorine Compounds from a Terrestrial Higher Plant: Structures and Origin

The persistence of organochlorine pesticides exacerbates environmental concerns over them. Now, however, Japanese researchers have discovered that a lily plant makes short-lived organochlorine compounds as an antifungal defense. The work could potentially point the way to synthetic, environmentally friendly organochlorine pesticides. When the edible lily Lilium maximowiczii is attacked by a certain soil fungus, the plant responds by producing antimicrobial compounds that act to restrict the fungal damage, according to researchers at Hokkaido University, Sapporo led by chemistry professor Mitsuo Takasugi and assistant professor Kenji Monde. They have identified orcinol and seven of its chlorinated metabolites in this antimicrobial mixture. The researchers conclude that the stressed plant produces these unusual "natural organochlorine pesticides" from orcinol via enzymatic chlorination. They note that although many chlorine- and bromine-containing metabolites from marine sources have been investigated previously, "only a few organochlorine or organorbromine compounds have been isolated from terrestrial higher plants."

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