Abstract
The biosynthesis of palitantin, C14H22O4, an alicyclic metabolite of Penicillium palitans and also of P. cyclopium, has been studied. Degradations of labelled palitantin derived from [1-14c]acetate strongly support a biosynthetic mechanism involving the head-to-tail condensation of acetate units. The biosynthetic pathway does not appear to involve mevalonic acid.