Water soluble nortropane alkaloids in crude drugs, edible fruits and vegetables: biological activities and therapeutic applications

The effect of Ipomoea carnea on maternal reproductive outcomes and fetal and postnatal development in rats

Ipomoea carnea is a toxic plant found in Brazil and other tropical countries. The plant contains the alkaloids calystegines and swainsonine, which inhibit key cellular enzymes and cause systematic cell death. It is known that swainsonine is excreted in the amniotic fluid of dams exposed to the plant. Thus, the aim of this study was to verify whether the toxic effect of I. carnea on fetuses is due to exclusively the passage of the active principle of the plant through the placenta, or if the placentotoxic effect of swainsonine could collaborate in the adverse effects observed in the fetus. The teratogenic effects of exposure to the toxic principles of I. carnea were evaluated not only using the conventional protocol but also at later stages in the postnatal developmental period. Females were treated, from gestation day (GD) 6 until GD19, with 0.0, 1.0, 3.0 or 7.0 g/kg body weight of I. carnea dry leaves. The plant did not induce changes in reproductive performance or biochemical profile of the dams. Dams that received the highest dose of I. carnea showed cytoplasmic vacuolization in the liver, kidney and placental tissue. I. carnea promoted different lectin binding patterns in different areas of placental tissue. No fetal skeletal or visceral malformations was observed. The postnatal evaluation revealed a lower litter weight and a lower pup body weight one day after birth in the group that received the highest dose of I. carnea. Physical milestones were unaffected by the treatments. Female pups from all experimental groups exhibited a delay in achieving a negative geotaxis response. The results show that the toxic principle of I. carnea produces injury in utero in mothers and fetuses, but these deleterious effects were better demonstrated using postnatal evaluation.

Determination of Calystegines in Several Tomato Varieties Based on GC-Q-Orbitrap Analysis and Their Classification by ANOVA

In this study, several calystegines (A₃, A₅, B₁, B₂, B₃, B₄, and C₁) were determined in tomato. A simple extraction followed by a derivatization step with silylating agents was performed prior to their analysis by gas chromatography coupled to high resolution mass spectrometry (GC-HRMS-Q-Orbitrap), which allowed the monitoring of several ions at accurate mass. The validation of the method has provided suitable values of linearity, trueness (73.7-120.0%), and precision (≤20.0%, except for calystegines B₃ and B₄ at 0.5 mg/kg). The limit of quantitation was set at 0.5 mg/kg for all analytes. The validated method was successfully applied to the analysis of nine different tomato varieties, and calystegines A₃, A₅, B₂, and C₁ were found at concentrations ranging between 0.65 mg/kg (C₁) and 12.47 mg/kg (B₂). Tomato varieties were classified according to their calystegines content by applying an analysis of variance (ANOVA).

The effect of polyhydroxylated alkaloids on maltase-glucoamylase

One of the most important carbohydrate-splitting enzymes is themaltase-glucoamylase which catalyzes the hydrolysis of alpha-glucosidic linkages. Maltase-glucoamylase inhibitors during the last few years have aroused medical interests in the treatment of diabetes. They contribute to a better understanding of the mechanism of maltase-glucoamylase. At present there are many different classes of maltase-glucoamylase inhibitors. This paper focuses on alkaloidal inhibitors of maltase-glucoamylase and structure-activity relationship (SAR) studies between them in order to discover some drugs with better efficiency and lower toxicity for treating diabetes.

Astonishing diversity of natural surfactants: 6. Biologically active marine and terrestrial alkaloid glycosides

This review article presents 209 alkaloid glycosides isolated and identified from plants, microorganisms, and marine invertebrates that demonstrate different biological activities. They are of great interest, especially for the medicinal and/or pharmaceutical industries. These biologically active glycosides have good potential for future chemical preparation of compounds useful as antioxidants, anticancer, antimicrobial, and antibacterial agents. These glycosidic compounds have been subdivided into several groups, including: acridone; aporphine; benzoxazinoid; ergot; indole; enediyne alkaloidal antibiotics; glycosidic lupine alkaloids; piperidine, pyridine, pyrrolidine, and pyrrolizidine alkaloid glycosides; glycosidic quinoline and isoquinoline alkaloids; steroidal glycoalkaloids; and miscellaneous alkaloid glycosides.