New evidence for the structure of myxinol.

1. Preliminary spectroscopic examination of a second component of hagfish bile salts suggested that it might be 3beta,7alpha,26(27)-trihydroxy-5alpha-cholestane. 2. Impure reduction products of the 3beta,26(27)-dihydroxycholestane-7,16-dione previously made from myxinol disulphate appeared also to have the 5alpha-configuration. 3. Infrared, nuclear-magnetic-resonance and mass-spectrographic as well as optical-rotatory-dispersion measurements on 3beta,26(27)-dihydroxycholestane-7,16-dione showed that it was a 5alpha-compound. 4. Myxinol is thus 3beta,7alpha,16alpha,26(27)-tetrahydroxy-5alpha-cholestane; new nuclear-magnetic-resonance measurements on myxinol tetra-acetate at higher resolution confirm this structure.