| Abstract: | The mass spectra of seven sesquiterpene lactones — leucomisin, austricin, parishin B, parishin C, matricarin, artelin, and artelin diacetate — have been studied. It has been shown that the presence of the conjugated bonds C(1)=C(10), C(2)=0, and C(3)=C(4), and also C(5)=C(6), stabilizes M+, and the main fragmentation process is that of the splitting out of the lactone ring. The presence of hydroxy substituents at C(3) and C(8) of the guaiane system does not change the stability of M+ under electron impact. The directions of fragmentation have been confirmed by an analysis of spectra obtained by the metastable defocussing of daughter ions and by measuring the accurate masses of the main peaks of the fragmentary ions.Institute of the Chemistry of Plant Substances, Academy of Sciences of the Uzbek SSR, Tashkent. Translated from Khimiya Prirodnykh Soedinenii, No. 1, pp. 96–101, January–February, 1987. |
