The methyl-migrated bicyclic skeleton of the halimane
diterpenes
has been found in a wide range of organisms, including flowering plants,
liverworts, marine animals, and bacteria. The discovery of halima-1(10),14-dien-13-ol
(3) from the Aotearoa New Zealand endemic alpine daisy Celmisia viscosa is now reported. The full configuration
was assigned for the first time by X-ray crystallography, enantiomeric
to that of a liverwort isolate. The absolute configuration at C-5
of the halimane is opposite to that at C-5 of the labdane epimanool
(1) found in some C. viscosa specimens.
Two new 2,6-dideoxyhexopyran-3-uloside halimane derivatives (4 and 5) were also found, and the absolute configuration
of 5 was determined by 1H NMR analysis of
the Mosher esters. Line broadening in the 13C NMR spectra
of these halim-1(10)-enes was due to conformational exchange in the
decalin ring A, as shown by molecular modeling and DFT calculations. 1H NMR and GC analyses of leaf extracts of individual plants
from across the full geographic range of C. viscosa revealed intraspecific variation of diterpenes: 37 samples had halimadienol
as the main diterpene in large amounts and 2 specimens had predominantly
epimanool, again in large amounts. Three other viscid (sticky leaved) Celmisia species also contained diterpenes, but none was
detectable in four nonviscid Celmisia species.