Alchornea

Fig. 92. Alchornea villosa (Benth.) Muell.-Arg. From KLU Herbarium 33970. Flora of Johore, West Malaysia. Comm. Ex. Herb. Hort. Bot. SING. Field collector botanical identification J.F. Maxwell. 4/10/1982. Geographical localization KotaTinggi Waterfalls. 

Disulfate Quercetin 3-methyl ether Alchornea laxiflora whole plant Euphorbiaceae 362... 

Ogundipe, 0.0., Moody, J.O., and Houghton, P.J., Occurrence of flavonol sulfates in Alchornea laxiflora, Pharm. Biol (Lisse, Netherlands), 39, 421, 2001. 

Natives generally rasp off the root bark and then eat it as a dried powder. Sometimes the powder is mixed with water and drunk as a beverage. Iboga is said to be stronger in its fresh state. In a few places, it is taken with other plants, especially with Alchornea floribunda (also considered an aphrodisiac), or marijuana. 

The boll weevil antifeedants, anthranilic acid, gentisic acid, senecioic acid, trans-cinnamic acid, trans-cinnamaldehyde and camphor have been Isolated from the Peruvian plant Alchornea triplinervia (Euphorbiaceae). Anthranilic acid and camphor also showed significant Inhibition of growth of the tobacco budworm. 

Those plants which showed total Inhibition of feeding were fractionated and examined In additional bioassays using the tobacco budworm. Three of the plants which were selected for further examination include the Peruvian plants Alchornea triplinervia (Euphorbiaceae) and Machaerlum florlbundum Bentham (Leguminosae) and the Mississippi plant Heterotheca camporum (Compositae). 

The Alchornea triplinervia used in this project was collected by the Institute for Botanical Exploration at their research facility in Iqultos, Peru, in the upper Amazon Valley during the first quarter of 1980. 

Table I. Bioassay Test Results from Extraction Fractions of Alchornea triplinervia...

Alchornine (73) and alchornidine (74a or 74b) have been isolated by Hart et al. (126) from the bark and leaves of Alchornea javanensis (Bl.) Muell.-Arg. (Euphorbiaceae), a small tree of the New Guinea rain forest. From spectroscopic data and chemical evidence, the major alkaloid alchornine was shown to have the hexahydroimidazo[l,2-a]pyrimidine structure 73. Hydrolysis of a minor alkaloid, alchornidine, with ethanolic potassium hydroxide gave alchornine and 2,2-dimethylacrylic acid. But alchornidine is not simply an A-acyl derivative of alchornine, because mild hydrolysis with dilute acetic acid gives an isomer of 73. This isoalchornine can be shown to be 75, and it is readily converted to alchornine by reaction with alkali. This... 

Two alkaloids which form explosive salts have been identified as the guanidine derivatives pterogynine (28) and pterogynidine (29). The latter compound is believed to be identical to a guanidine alkaloid isolated from Alchornea javensis The structure of pterogynine (28) was confirmed by synthesis. ... 

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