Chemosystemiatic and biogeographic studies of the diterpenes from the marine brown alga Dictyota dichotoma

Dictyota dichotoma is claimed to be the only cosmopolitan species of the genus Dictyota. It is also the species that has been the most extensively studied by phytochemists, yielding a plethora of diterpenes as major secondary metabolites. The question whether D. dichotoma is a true cosmopolitan spec...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biochemical systematics and ecology 1990, Vol.18 (2/3), p.87-92
Main Authors: Teixeira, V.L, Silva, S.A. da, Kelecom, A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
biogeography
chemotaxonomy
diterpenoids
geographical variation
Phaeophycophyta
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Dictyota dichotoma is claimed to be the only cosmopolitan species of the genus Dictyota. It is also the species that has been the most extensively studied by phytochemists, yielding a plethora of diterpenes as major secondary metabolites. The question whether D. dichotoma is a true cosmopolitan species of defined limits is examined in this work. Diterpenes isolated from several populations, collected all over the world, are used as a criterion. The dissimilarity between diterpene compositions and mainly the important differences observed for the taxonomic indices suggested that D. dichotoma is actually a complex of species. The cosmopolitan character of its geographic distribution should be revised.
ISSN:0305-1978
1873-2925