Isolation, tentative identification, and synthesis studies of the volatile components of the hairpencil secretion of the monarch butterfly

Article abstract of DOI:10.1016/S0040-4020(01)97091-7

The major volatile components of the hairpencil secretion of the male monarch butterfly have been identified as benzyl caproate and either 1, 5, 5, 9-tetramethyl-10-oxabicyclo[4.4.0]-3- decen-2-one(1), or 2, 2, 6, 8-tetramethyl-7-oxabicyclo[4.4.0]-4-decen-3-one(2). One sequence designed to synthesize 1 yielded two isomeric products of structure 1 whose spectra are very similar to each other but distinctly different from those of the natural product; this sequence also yielded a tricyclic ketal (9). A second sequence gave two epimeric spiro compounds (12) and a third sequence gave a [4.3.0] ring system (14).