Absolute structure of N-p-coumaroyloctopamine in elicitor-treated potato tuber tissue

Treatment of potato tuber tissue with beta-1,3-oligoglucosaccharide causes an accumulation of N-p-coumaroyloctopamine (1). In order to determine the absolute structure of 1 in potato, optically active 1 was synthesized from (R)-octopamine which had been obtained from the racemic mixture by the fractional crystallization. By comparing the chromatographic behavior of synthetic and naturally-occurring samples with a chiral HPLC analysis, the absolute configuration of 1 in potato was determined to be S. This indicates that the absolute configuration of the octopamine moiety of 1 is opposite to that of octopamine formed in animal tissues.