Analysis of metastable defocusing spectra of lycoctonine bases having 7,8-methylenedioxy groups

The parameters of the MD spectra of the fragmentary ions of 21 lycoctonine alkaloids with 7,8-MDOGs have been investigated. On this basis, the monotypicity of the main fragmentation processes characteristic for the individual groups of compounds have been confirmed. A decrease in the number of common group characteristics of the MD spectra of the ions arising as the result of multistage breakdown processes is caused by alternative methods for their formation. This is not shown only by the doublet nature of the fragmentary ions. The results of a comparison of the MD spectra with the structures of the molecules have confirmed the hypothesis expressed previously concerning the 7,8-MDOG as the center of localization of the charge, competing with the nitrogen atom and facilitating the elimination of various substituents from the diterpene skeleton. A comparison has been made of two methods of evaluating the common nature of the fragmentation reaction: from the energies of the metastable transitions and from the relative intensities of the metastable peaks. The two methods give mutually supplementary information concerning the nature of the fragmentation processes.Institute of the Chemistry of Plant Substances, Academy of Sciences of the Uzbek SSR, Tashkent. Translated from Khimiya Prirodnykh Soedinenii, No. 3, pp. 397–407, May–June, 1987.