| Abstract: | Summary 1. The decomposition of sphagnum moss and of an isolated preparation of lignin (DLA) by means of metallic sodium in liquid ammonia has been performed, and a phenolic fraction has been isolated with a yield of 0.89% from the moss and 10.2% from the lignin.2. The following phenols were isolated from the phenolic fraction and their yields were determined by paper and gas-liquid chromatography: 4-hydroxyphenylpropane, 1-and 3-(4-hydroxyphenyl)propan-1-ols, 1-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)propane, 1-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-propan-1-ol, p-hydroxybenzaldehyde, vanillin, and p-hydroxybenzyl and vanillyl alcohols.3. The quantitative figures on the composition of the phenolic fraction of the decomposition products give grounds for assuming that the  uncondensed structural fragments of sphagnum moss lignin are composed to the extent of two thirds of structural units of the p-hydroxyphenyl type joined to one another by  -alkyl aryl ether bonds.4. Weighty evidence is given in favor of the assumption that sphagnum moss lignin contains as monomeric structural fragments vanillin and p-hydroxybenzaldehyde, these being attached to the polymer chain by alkyl-aryl or aryl-aryl ether bonds.S. M. Kirov Belorussian Technologic Institute. Institute of Physical Organic Chemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Belorussian SSR. Translated from Khimiya Prirodnykh Soedinenii, No. 1, pp. 77–83, January–February, 1975. |
