Terpenoid amines as insect juvenile hormones

AFTER the discovery that an epoxide derivative of farnesenate esters (1) showed high juvenile hormone (JH) activity1, we undertook to synthesize related compounds in an effort to find the most potent of this class of materials. The elucidation of the structure of two hormones from Hyalophora cecropia (2 (ref. 2) and 3 (ref. 3)) as homologues of the farnesenate structure, and the observation that products obtained from the addition of hydrogen chloride to farnesenate esters (18) also possessed hormone activity4, led to the inclusion of analogous compounds in our programme. Here we describe results with a series of amide derivatives.