Ants, alkaloids

Although no experiment has yet been reported to support the idea, it seems clear that a majority of the pyrrolidine alkaloids arise from the ornithine, pu-trescine, and proline pool. This could be the case for ficine (61) and isoficine (62), vochysine (63), and phyllospadine (64) but also of the Darlingia alkaloids, which share common features with hygrine this assertion probably also holds for the ruspolinone (25) and odorine-roxburghlin (59) families. Peripentadenine, isolated from a plant of the family Elaeocarpaceae, bears resemblance to other alkaloids of the elaeocarpus type such as isoelaeocarpicine (124) (161). It cannot be excluded, however, that spermidine may be a biosynthetic intermediate instead of putrescine. The question of the origin of ant alkaloid substances remains so far without an obvious answer. 

Many insect defensive alkaloids have already been synthesized and several of these syntheses have already been reviewed (e.g., [13,114,116]). Here we will limit ourselves to the presentation of recent syntheses of Myrmicaria and Tetra-ponera ant alkaloids. 

Queen pheromones ant alkaloids, lactones, pyrones, sesquiterpenes, pentadecene Cruz-Lopez etal. (2001)... 

Disubstituted piperidines (and piperideines) are well known as constituents of myrmicine ant venoms, particularly in fire ants of the genus Solenopsis (125,134,149,161,164). Both cis and trans isomers occur. Cis-and/or rrans-2-methyl-6-nonylpiperidines are prominent ant alkaloids. These ant alkaloids have not been detected in amphibians, but the 4-hydroxy piperidine analog (241D) has. 

Recently, oribatid mites (arthropods that, such as spiders, belong to the class Arachnida) were shown to also produce many of the bicyclic ant alkaloids described in this section including twenty-five 5,8-disubstituted or... 

Previous treatment of the indolizidine and quinohzidine alkaloid constituents of ant secretions may be found in Volume 55 of this series. An important review describing the defensive chemistry of ants, by Leclerq et al., deals with the occurrence, stmcture, function, and total synthesis of all the major groups of ant alkaloids, especially monomorine I vide infra. Section 6.1.2)... 

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