Pulvinone, an organic compound belonging to the esters, lactones, alcohols and butenolides classes, is a yellow crystalline solid. Although the pulvinone is not a natural product, several naturally occurring hydroxylated derivatives are known. These hydroxylated pulvinones are produced by fungal species, such as the in Europe common Larch Bolete (Boletus elegans, also known as Suillus grevillei), or by moulds such as Aspergillus terreus.
Pulvinone, an organic compound belonging to the esters, lactones, alcohols and butenolides classes, is a yellow crystalline solid. Although the pulvinone is not a natural product, several naturally occurring hydroxylated derivatives are known. These hydroxylated pulvinones are produced by fungal species, such as the in Europe common Larch Bolete (Boletus elegans, also known as Suillus grevillei), or by moulds such as Aspergillus terreus.
==History== Fungi (such as boleti), moulds and lichens produce a wide range of pigments made up of one (monomer) or several (oligomers) units of pulvinic acid. In 1831, in the course of a study of the constituents of lichens (Cetraria Vulpina), the French chemist and pharmacist Antoine Bebert discovered a compound named vulpinic acid, the first known naturally occurring methyl ester of pulvinic acid. More details about the structure of this pigment were disclosed in 1860 by the German chemists Franz Möller and Adolph Strecker. While trying to elucidate the structure of vulpinic acid, the German chemist Adolf Spiegel found in 1880 that the vulpinic acid could be saponified to a diacid. He named the resulting diacid pulvinic acid. The German chemist Jacob Volhard elucidated the constitution of pulvinic acid by synthesizing it through the basic hydrolysis of a corresponding dicyanocompound. In the process, he also obtained small amounts of a side-product. One year later Ludwig Claisen and Thomas Ewan achieved the synthesis of this side-product and characterized it as the 5-benzylidene-4-hydroxy-3-phenylfuran-2(5H)-one. thumb|center|400px|Synthesis of pulvinone from vulpinic acid (Spiegel, top) and from a corresponding dicyanide (Volhard, below) Claisen and Ewan described it as das der Pulvinsäure zu Grunde liegende Lacton (the lactone underlying the structure of pulvinic acid): that was the origin of the name pulvinone.
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