It was isolated, identified, and named by Douglas Chester and John Alan Elix in a 1979 publication.

[1] Syo Kurokawa and Rex Filson had previously detected the compounds using thin-layer chromatography when they formally described the lichen as a new species in 1975, but had not characterised them chemically.

Additional analysis with proton nuclear magnetic resonance corroborated these results and confirmed the linear nature of the aliphatic chain.

Examples include Parmelia xanthosorediata, Heterodermia appendiculata, Heterodermia japonica,[5] Protoparmelia nebulosa,[6] Hertelidea wankaensis,[7] Lepraria coriensis,[8] Punctelia negata,[9] and Rhizoplaca melanophthalma.

[10] Some sources consider the molecule to have an unusual or humorous name due to its similarity to the word "constipation".