Taxus baccata seed oil: A new source ofcis-5,cis-9-octadecadienoic acid

Methyl esters prepared from the seed oil of the coniferTaxus baccata L. were found by gas liquid chromatography to contain 12% of a component which, when isolated by preparative thin layer chromatography and characterized by mass spectrometry, ozonolysis and nuclear magnetic resonance, was identified ascis-5,cis-9-octadecadienoic acid.