Identification of Benzaldehyde, Phenol and Mandelonitrile from Epanerchodus japonicus CARL (Polydesmida: Polydesmidae) as Possible Defense Substances

Abstract

In the dichloromethane extract of field-collected millipedes Epanerchodus japonicus CARL, three components were detected as possible defense substances by gas-liquid chromatography (GC). the chemicals were identified as benzaldehyde, phenol and mandelonitrile, by comparison of their retention times of GC and of their GC-mass (GC/MS) spectra with those of authentic compounds using a fused silica capillary column. Quantitative determination of each component by GC and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) revealed that individual millipedes contained 82-210μg of mandelonitrile, 1.7-3.6μg of benzaldehyde and 2.4-6.9μg of phenol. The content of mandelonitrile was determined for the first time, and it corresponded to 0.12-0.40% of the fresh body weight.