The eighth step in the pathway is conversion of boschnaloside to 8-epideoxy loganic acid which involves hydroxylation/oxidation reaction.

'Be gone tartlets! Your feminine charms hold no power over me,' he said, […]

[I]t was Captain Tod Halsey who had the responsibility of the whole thing. If the great marble shaft couldn't be dragged up the face of the bluff, the squint-eyed old river runner would be the loser.

It made his stomach grumble in protest to think the mule was eating, and here he was worrying about her with an empty belly of his own.