Observations on the chemical and physiological properties of urodiolenone, an urinary compound found in hypertension.

Urodiolenone is a substance that appears as the glucuronide in the urine of 1 in 3 hypertensive subjects. It is a potent inhibitor of Na+, K+-ATPase in kidney tissue of the guinea pig, as measured by cytochemical assay. Chemical and mass spectrometric evidence is presented, from which it is concluded that urodiolenone is a sesquiterpenoid substance, is a bicyclic enone with a vicinal diol side chain, and has molecular formula C15H24O3.