Urinary excretion profile of higenamine in females after oral administration of supplements - Doping scenario

In 2017, higenamine was added to the World Antidoping Agency's (WADA) Prohibited list under group S3: beta-2 agonists and it is banned for athletes both in - and out of competition. Aim of this study was to characterize the urinary excretion profile of higenamine and its metabolite coclaurine after oral administration of multiple doses of higenamine capsules. For this purpose, an administration study including female basketball players was performed. For the detection of higenamine and cocalurine in the collected urine samples, a new, fast, and highly sensitive quantitative on-line SPE LC HRMS method was developed and validated. The method was applied for the quantification of higenamine and cocalurine in urine and their excretion pattern was defined. Results obtained show substantial inter-individual differences in the excretion profile of higenamine and coclaurine. For higenamine, half-lives were estimated to be between 4 and 27 h, and for coclaurine between 5 and 25 h. Furthermore, the data indicate that the elimination of coclaurine is rate-limited by its formation. Higenamine could be detected at a urine concentration above 10 ng/mL for at least 20 h after the last application for all study participants.

Anti-cancer activity of new benzyl isoquinoline alkaloid from Saudi plant Annona squamosa

Two alkaloids, belonging to benzylisoquinoline alkaloids, were isolated from Annona squamosa. One of these alkaloids, 6, 7-dimethoxy-1-(α-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzyl)-2-methyl-1, 2, 3, 4-tetrahydroisoquinoline, was isolated for the first time from natural sources, while, the alkaloid, Coclaurine was known in Annona squamosa L. Moreover, the isolated alkaloids tested for the anti-cancer activities on various cell lines (HepG-2, MCF-7, and HCT-116).