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Biological Significance of Alkaloids

Key words alkaloids, antimicrobial activity, anti-parasitic activity, biology, cytotoxicity, DNA, endogenous security mechanism, estrogenic effect, evolution, genes, haemoglobinization, immune system, inhibitor, locoism, narcotics, regulation, stimulator [Pg.141]

Alkaloids play a very important role in organism metabolism and functional activity. They are metabolic products in plants, animals and micro-organisms. They occur in both vertebrates and invertebrates as endogenous and exogenous compounds. Many of them have a distributing effect on the nervous systems of animals. Alkaloids are the oldest successfully used drugs throughout the historical treatment of many diseases  [Pg.141]


Biological and economic importance. There is no general explanation for the biological significance of A. Protection against consumption of the plant by animals has been proven in a few cases, but the fact that most insects are limited to one or a few food plants may actually be due to the alkaloid content of these particular species. Many A. have a strong and very specific effect on certain centers of the nervous system (e.g. opiates, see Endorphins). Therefore A. are widely used clinically, as combinations of pure compounds, as extracts of total alkaloids, or as synthetic analogs. However, their use is often accompanied by side effects, mainly toxicity and narcosis. [Pg.24]

Lupins produce both tetracyclic (e.g. lupanine) and bicyclic quinolizidine alkaloids (i.e. lupinine) (Figure 4.15), which typically accumulate as esters of tiglic acid, p-coumaric acid, acetic acid and ferulic acid (Suzuki et al. 1996). The biological significance of these esters is not clear. Quinolizidine alkaloid esters are mainly distributed in the genera... [Pg.126]

The most important aspect of coralyne is its ability to inhibit DNA relaxation in a fashion significantly similar to the most potent antitumour alkaloid camptothecin, which is known to exert this property [242], Presumably, the most notable biological action of these alkaloids appears to be topoisomerase inhibition [238-242], which has direct relevance to their DNA intercalating property. In this context. Pilch et al. [167] described a mixed binding mode model (Fig. 16) in which the protoberberine structure constitutes portions that can intercalate or bind to the minor groove of DNA. Wang et al. [240] demonstrated that coralyne (Ci) and several of its derivatives (Ce to Ch) (Scheme 5), including the partial saturated... [Pg.198]

Nearly all of the microbial and mammalian transformation studies with this group of alkaloids have been focused on nicotine. Microorganisms have been used to resolve racemic nicotine to make available unnatural (/ )-(+)-nicotine for biological evaluation. Highly significant work has detailed the mechanism of nicotine oxidation in mammals, and has resulted in the identification of reactive intermediates formed as the alkaloid is transformed by hepatic monooxygenases. The chemistry and pharmacology of the pyridine alkaloids is discussed by Strunz and Findlay in Volume 26 of this treatise. [Pg.392]

Aniszewski T (2007) Alkaloids - secrets of life alkaloid chemistry. Biological significance applications and ecological role. Elsevier, Amsterdam, p 181... [Pg.100]


See other pages where Biological Significance of Alkaloids is mentioned: [Pg.141]    [Pg.143]    [Pg.145]    [Pg.147]    [Pg.149]    [Pg.151]    [Pg.153]    [Pg.155]    [Pg.157]    [Pg.159]    [Pg.161]    [Pg.163]    [Pg.165]    [Pg.167]    [Pg.169]    [Pg.171]    [Pg.173]    [Pg.175]    [Pg.177]    [Pg.179]    [Pg.141]    [Pg.143]    [Pg.145]    [Pg.147]    [Pg.149]    [Pg.151]    [Pg.153]    [Pg.155]    [Pg.157]    [Pg.159]    [Pg.161]    [Pg.163]    [Pg.165]    [Pg.167]    [Pg.169]    [Pg.171]    [Pg.173]    [Pg.175]    [Pg.177]    [Pg.179]    [Pg.61]    [Pg.144]    [Pg.339]    [Pg.206]    [Pg.699]    [Pg.196]    [Pg.199]    [Pg.15]    [Pg.451]    [Pg.111]    [Pg.71]    [Pg.858]    [Pg.311]    [Pg.437]    [Pg.187]    [Pg.262]    [Pg.397]    [Pg.440]    [Pg.141]    [Pg.142]    [Pg.184]    [Pg.240]    [Pg.373]    [Pg.1446]    [Pg.298]   


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Biological Significance of

Biological significance

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