Starting from methyl dehydroabietate, six derivatives of methyl 12-substituted-dehydroabietate were synthesized through several steps, such as bromation, nitration, reduction and diazotization, and the effect of the different groups of methyl 12-substituted-dehydroabietate derivatives on their UV and fluorescence properties was also investigated. A series of novel bromo and nitro derivatives of methyl dehydroabietate were obtained by the dinitration, oxidation, nitration-deisopropylation of methyl 12-chloro-dehydroabietate and methyl 12-bromo-dehydroabietate, respectively. The compounds methyl 12-chloro- dehydroabietate and 12-bromo-13,14-dinitro-deisopropyldehydroabietate were characterized by X-ray diffraction.

Key words: methyl dehydroabietate, X-ray diffraction, fluorescence absorption, ultraviolet absorption, synthesis