The occurrence of putrescine and a new guanidino amino acid in seeds of Lathyrus tingitanus

Abstract

The natural occurrence of L-homoarginine in seeds of Lathyrus sativus (Rao, Ramachandran and Adiga, 1963), of L. cicera, L. cymenum, and others (Bell, 1962a) has recently been noted. Further, seeds of L. tingitanus contain the unusual amino acid lathyrine — β-(2-amino-pyrimidine-4-yl) alanine (Bell, 1962b). The possible role of homoarginine as a precursor of lathyrine has been suggested ( Rao et al., 1963; Bell, 1962c), and it has also been speculated that γ-hydroxyhomoarginine or its lactone — which may spontaneously undergo ring closure to yield tetrahydrolathyrine — could be expected to occur in L. tingitanus (Rao L. tingitanus, 1963). We present herein some evidence for the presence of a new guanidino amino acid in the seeds. Some of the properties noted for this amino acid are akin to those anticipated for the lactone of γ-hydroxyhomoarginine. The seeds also contain a substantial amount of putrescine.