Alkaloids, continued strychnos

However, as investigation progressed, ethnobotanical and pharmacological works have revealed that alkaloids of Strychnos species display a broad spectrum of biological activities [3, 4]. This has attracted the interests of phytochemists over the last three decades as evidenced by the continued publication of several review articles devoted to this series of alkaloids [5, 6, 7]. While 150 years were necessary to completely elucidate the structure of 1, structure determination has considerably benefited from the progress of NMR techniques, especially H- H and 2D-NMR experiments. Based on their particular structures, the Strychnos alkaloids have been the focal point of considerable spectroscopic efforts. More recently some selected Strychnos alkaloids, 1 and brucine (2), and their N-oxide derivatives, have been used successfully as model compounds for the application of the 15N NMR methods [8, 9]. 

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