On the origin of quasi-racemic aplysinopsin cycloadducts, (bis)indole alkaloids isolated from scleractinian corals of the family Dendrophylliidae. Involvement of enantiodefective Diels-Alderases or asymmetric induction in artifact processes involving adventitious catalysts?

Reported here are two novel quasi-racemic (bis)indole alkaloids, cycloaplysinopsin A (5) and cycloaplysinopsin B (6), isolated from tropical Indo-Pacific (Comoros, Philippines) scleractinian corals of the family Dendrophylliidae. Although their structures suggest a Diels-Alder cycloaddition origin from aplysinopsin-type precursors, neither experiments, nor theory allowed us to clearly distinguish an enzymatic process with scarce enantioselection from the intrusion of an adventitious catalyst in the coral extracts, where the chiral environment caused a slight asymmetric induction.     

Synthesis of (±)-pseudoheliotridane by allylboration of 1-pyrroline

Reaction of tricrotylborane with 1-pyrroline proceeds stereoselectively to give (1R ^* ,1′S ^* )-2-(1-methylallyl)pyrrolidine. The latter was converted to the pyrrolizidine alkaloid (±)-pseudoheliotridane through hydroboration-oxidation-intramolecular cyclization. Translated fromIzvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 7, pp. 1450–1452, July, 1998.     

A New Bislabdane-type Diterpenoid from Cunninghamia lanceolata

Cunninghmia lanceolata Hook. is a traditional Chinese medicine used for thetreatment of hernia, arthritis and strangury. its chemical constituents have beenexamined]' 2' 3' '. In a previous paper we reported a bislabdane-type diterpenoidlanceolatic acid from the roots of the plant 5. Further chemical studies on this plantled to the isolation of another new bislabdane-type diterpenoid, named lanceolatin(I ).Compound I was obtained as white amorphous powder. mp 232-234 'C, [a]."-24 (c 0. 10, C…     

Human topoisomerase I poisoning: docking protoberberines into a structure-based binding site model

Summary Using the X-ray crystal structure of the human topoisomerase I (top1) – DNA cleavable complex and the Sybyl software package, we have developed a general model for the ternary cleavable complex formed with four protoberberine alkaloids differing in the substitution on the terminal phenyl rings and covering a broad range of the top1-poisoning activities. This model has the drug intercalated with its planar chromophore between the −1 and +1 base pairs flanking the cleavage site, with the nonplanar portion pointing into the minor groove. The ternary complexes were geometry-optimized and relative interaction energies, computed by using the Tripos force field, were found to rank in correct order the biological potency of the compounds; in addition, the model is also consistent with the top1-poisoning inactivity of berberine, a major prototype of the protoberberine alkaloids. The model might serve as a rational basis for elaboration of the most active compound as a lead structure, in order to develop more potent top1 poisons as next generation anti-cancer drugs.     

Calculation of circular dichroism spectra of michellamines A and C, based on a complete conformational analysis

The first quantum chemical calculation of the circular dichroism (CD) spectra of michellamines has been achieved, based on a complete quantum chemical conformational analysis. Michellamines are dimeric naphthylisoquinoline alkaloids and thus naturally occurring quateraryls, with a large molecular size and flexibility and equipped with stereogenic centers and axes.     

Synthesis of Naturally Occurring Pyrazine and Imidazole Alkaloids from Botryllus LeachiRID=”a”ID=”a”?Dedicated to Prof. G. M?rkl on the occasion of his 75th birthday

The synthesis of the naturally occurring and biologically active alkaloids 1 and 2, first isolated from the red ascidian Botryllus leachi by Duran et al. [1], is described and the structure proposed for Botryllazine B (1) is confirmed. The analytical data for 2-(p-hydroxybenzoyl)-4-(p-hydroxyphenyl)imidazole (2) are discussed and compared with the literature. With special emphasis of ¹H NMR data the tautomerism of aroylimidazolemethanones is described.     

Investigation of Aconitine-type Alkaloids from Processed Tuber of Aconitum carmiechaeli by HPLC-ESI-MS/MS~n

Introduction Aconitine-type alkaloids isolated from the roots of Aconitum carmiechaeli show a potential toxicity and a broad spectrum of bioactivity[1-4].On the basis of the C8-substituent of C19-diterpenoid skeleton,aconitine-type alkaloids can be divided into diester-diterpenoid alkaloids(DDAs),monoester-diterpenoid alkaloids(MDAs),and lipo-alkaloids(Fig.1).     

Liquid chromatographic/electrospray mass spectrometric determination (LC/ESI-MS) of chelerythrine and dihydrochelerythrine in near-critical CO2 extracts from real and spiked plasma samples

Two polar benzo[c]phenanthridine alkaloids, chelerythrine (CHE) and dihydrochelerythrine (DHCHE), were extracted at 35 °C and 10 MPa (15 MPa for real samples) from real and spiked plasma samples with acceptable recoveries (95.1% and 81.0%, respectively) using near-critical CO₂ modified with aqueous (1:1, v/v) methanol. The alkaloids were quantified by a liquid chromatographic/electrospray mass spectrometric (LC/ESI-MS) method on a Zorbax SB-CN column (75 mm × 4.6 mm, 3.5 μm particle size) using methanol (organic phase) and 50 mM ammonium formiate (aqueous phase) as a mobile phase. A linear gradient 0-1 min, isocratic at 60% organic phase (v/v); from 1.0 to 7.0 min, 60-71% organic phase (v/v); from 7.0 to 18.0 min, 71-60% organic phase (v/v) was applied. The limit of detection was 1.22 ng (3.50 pmol) for CHE and 0.95 ng (2.72 pmol) for DHCHE per 1 ml of the sample. The linearity of the calibration curves was satisfactory as indicated by coefficients of determination 0.9979 and 0.9995 for CHE and DHCHE, respectively. Repeatability and intermediate precision (average R.S.D.s) were 1.0-1.5%, accuracy was in the range 99.7-100.3%. Average recovery was 100.1% for both, standard solutions and spiked plasma extracts. Three samples of real rat plasma were extracted and analysed to test the method.     

A study of the behaviour of some new column materials in the chromatographic analysis of Cinchona alkaloids

Summary A major problem in the HPLC analysis of alkaloids is the poor peak shape and consequently low resolution, due to the interactions of the basic alkaloids with the residual acidic silanol groups of most reversed phase materials. The performance of new packing materials specially designed for the separation of basic compounds has been studied using mobile phases without the special additives commonly applied in the analysis of alkaloids. Strongly basic Cinchona alkaloids were used as test compounds. Retention characteristics and selectivities of each material were studied, after mobile phase optimisation for the column. The influence of the major factors (nature and content of the organic modifier, pH value, salt concentration) affecting resolution was studied. The mobile phases were chosen so that they could be used in thermospray LC-MS. The addition of salts to the mobile phase improves separation but in general the modification of the mobile phase gave little change in selectivity. The performance of silicabased C₁₈ material proved superior to the polymer materials tested.