An-Najah Staff

Since the initial report describing the novel cyclo­propane-containing side chain of gorgosterol,' several ad­ditional steroids containing this interesting side chain have been reported.2,3 The 1H NMR spectra of all of these compounds exhibited signals for four high-field protons, although only three such protons would be expected in the trisubstituted cyclopropane moiety. In the specific case of gorgosterol, the protons at b -0.13 and 0.44 were assigned as the cyclopropane methylene (H30) protons. One of the proton signals contained in the unresolved two-proton multiplet observed at S 0.06-0.37 was further assigned as the remaining cyclopropane resonance (H22) on the basis of homonuclear decoupling experiments. The identity of the remaining proton signal contained in this multiplet has, however, never been accounted for, although it was sug­gested that that signal must be due to an unusually shielded proton not directly attached to the cyclopropane ring. We have performed an NMR study of a secogorgo­sterol derivative, 5a,6cr-epoxy-3,11-dihydroxy-9,11-seco­5a-gorgostan-9-one 3,11-diacetate (1), which also exhibits.............................."see attached file"