Studies on the extracts from the muscle of molluscs - VIII. Isolation of D-rhodoic acid from the abalone muscle.

Abstract

In the strongly acidic fraction of the muscle extract of abalone Haliotis discus hannai, an unique compound which showed very weak ninhydrin reaction was detected by paper electrophoresis. It was isolated by ion exchange chromatography, and inferred to be D-rhodoic acid: N-(D-1-carboxyethyl)-taurine from the results of elemental analysis, NMR, ORD and IR spectro-metries. This inference was confirmed by synthesis. It is very interesting to note that the structure of this compound is similar to that of octopine, alanopine and strombine, which are referred to as “opine”.