Although mezerein resembles 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) in being a potent ligand for protein kinase C in vitro, its properties as a tumor promoter on mouse skin differ from those of TPA. Mezerein is a good second-stage promoter of papillomas, an inefficient complete promoter of papillomas, and an effective promoter of carcinomas. The mechanism and structural features responsible for the anomalous tumor promoting activity of mezerein are unknown. We have examined here the in vitro and in vivo activities of octahydromezerein (OHM) and compared them to those of TPA and mezerein. OHM was of interest because if it acted like mezerein it would afford a convenient route for radioactive labeling. Alternatively, if it functioned as a complete tumor promoter, it would implicate unsaturation as the critical structural feature of mezerein responsible for its altered promoting activity. Consistent with this latter possibility, we find that OHM was an effective complete tumor promoter for SENCAR mice. Moreover, the pattern and magnitude of papilloma induction, yielding a peak at 16-20 weeks followed by a decline by 30-32 weeks, resembled that for TPA; mezerein, in contrast, induced a gradual but steady increase in the number of papillomas which did not reach the OHM level by 32 weeks. The dosage of OHM for inducing a comparable degree of acute and chronic hyperplasia to that induced by mezerein was 3- to 10-fold higher. This difference agrees with the relative binding affinities to protein kinase C; the Ki for OHM was 2.7 nM, compared to 0.58 nM for mezerein.