Abstract: | The four pseudoprotoberberins extracted from Isopyrum thalictroides L. were reduced with sodium borohydride to the corresponding tetrahydropseudoprotoberberins. Comparison between the 13C NMR spectra of these and of synthetic protoberberins allowed us to assign a trans-1 configuration to the four reduced alkaloids and also to provide for this particular configuration an unequivocal criterion for the differentiation (based on the chemical shift of C-8) between tetrahydroprotoberberins (9, 10 substituted) and tetrahydropseudoprotoberberins (10, 11 substituted). |