Alkaloids genus Aconitum

Zhao XY, Wang Y, Li Y, et al. Songorine, a diterpenoid alkaloid of the genus Aconitum, is a novel GABAa receptor antagonist in rat brain. Neurosci Lett 2003 337 33-36. 

Aconite alkaloids Aconitine, molecular formula C34H47NO11, is an example of an aconite alkaloid. It is soluble in organic solvents, e.g. CHCI3 and CeHg, and sfightly soluble in alcohol or ether, but insoluble in water. Aconitine is an extremely toxic substance obtained from the plants of the genus Aconitum (family Ranunculaceae), commonly known as aconite or monkshood . It is a neurotoxin, and used for creating models of cardiac arrhythmia. 

Although the chemical constituents of plants of the genus Aconitum have been extensively studied, mainly due to the presence of toxic and bioactive alkaloids, there are only few works regarding the phytochemical composition of A. naviculare. 

In the meantime, and turning attention to the Far East, there is the long history that the tubers of plants in the genus Aconitum (Ranunculaceae) have been used as arrow poisons for harpoons in Japan and neighboring countries. In Japan, the Ainu indigenous people of Hokkaido in northern Japan applied Aconitum toxin as an arrow poison. On the other hand, the tubers of Aconitum plants have also been used for heart medications under the name bu-shi or uzu for a long period of time. The main toxic alkaloid of Aconitum plants, aconitine, is described in Chapter 14.4. 

The alkaloids of Aconitum genus are divided into three categories C20, C19, and C18 -diterpenoid alkaloids. 

The genus Consolida, Aconitum, and Delphinium (Ranunculaceae) are well-known to be rich in diterpene alkaloids, which possess a diverse range of biological activities. These plants have also been the cause of poisonings, which primarily occur in cattle as well as human beings, due to toxicity of their alkaloids. In one of our recent studies, five diterpenoid-derivative alkaloids, lycoctonine (9), 18-O-methyllycoctonine (10), delcosine (11), 14-acetyldelcosine (12), and 14-acetylbrowniine (13) (as shown in Fig. 3) were screened for their antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral activities [39]. 

Whilst most of the aconines and related amino alcohols have been isolated from alkaloids present in plants of either one or the other of the genera Aconitum and Delphinium, lycoctonine is remarkable in that its derivatives occur in species of both these genera (cf. Table 15). Not only is it widely distributed in the Delphinium genus, but it was originally isolated (72) from A. lycoctonum L. 

Table 48 J Antiarrfiythmic activity of alkaloids fr

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