K. Manchester
Mar 23, 1974
Citations
0
Influential Citations
19
Citations
Journal
FEBS Letters
Abstract
Hypoglycin A, P_(methylenecyclopropyl)alanine, is a non-protein amino acid first isolated [l] from the unripe fruit of the ackee, Blighia sapida, a tree much cultivated in Jamaica where the fleshy aril constitutes an important item of diet, particularly of the lower income groups. The unripe ackee aril may contain around 1 mg of hypoglycin per g wet weight and the seeds two to three times as much, but as the fruit ripens the content of the aril decreases to less than 0.01% of the amino acid [2] . Hypoglycin is found in the seeds both as the free amino acid and the y-glutamyl dipeptide conjugate, hypoglycin B [3] . It is also found in ripe sycamore fruits (Acer pseudoplatanus) [4] and as the major component of the free amino acid pool in the seeds of Billia hippocastanum of Costa Rica [S] . Hypoglycin possesses both a cyclopropane ring and a methylene group, neither of which are found in any protein amino acids. Fruits of species related to ackee and some others contain several varieties of nonprotein amino acids with cyclopropane rings, e.g. OL(methylenecyclopropyl)glycine from Litchi chinensis and Acer genus as well as B. sapida [3,6,7], (3(methylenecyclopropyl)~(3-methylalanine from Aesculus californica [8] and cisand trans-cu-(carboxycyclopropyl)glycine from the seeds of A. parvifzora and A. pavia and B. sapida [9]. Methylene groups in non-