Autoxidation Products of Betulonaldehyde.

Three major degradation products resulted from the exposure of betulonaldehyde (1) to air in solution at room temperature. From HRMS and NMR data, the products, which were isolated by preparative supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC), were identified as betulonic acid (2) and C-17 hydroperoxide epimers 3 (β-OOH) and 4 (α-OOH). For 3 and 4, the H-18 multiplet pattern of the isolated products established the configuration at C-17.