Photo-oxygenation of racemic phytol has yielded two secondary allylic hydroperoxides and an endoperoxide hemi-acetal, which are the expected products from the “ene-type” reaction of singlet oxygen with the tri-substituted double bond in phytol. Spectral properties for one of the diastereoisomers of phytene-1-ol-2-hydroperoxide obtained from synthesis are shown to be identical with those of a natural product previously reported from Artemisia annua, which, it is concluded, was wrongly assigned as phytene-1,2-diol.
