Calabash

Gourd or Calabash Curare. This type, exported in small gourds, is said to be made from Strychnos toxifera Schomb., and this was confirmed by King, who isolated from botanically authenticated material collected in British Guiana, an amorphous, quaternary alkaloid indistinguishable from curarine prepared from gourd curare, and Wieland et al. have isolated from this species alkaloids which they have also found in this type of curare. Other Strychnos spp. from the same territory examined by King contained alkaloids, but not of the curarine type. 

Alkaloids of Goukd ok Calabash Curare. The toxic constituent of this form, as prepared by Boehm, was an amorphous curarine to which the formula C gHjgONj was assigned. Gourd curare has been investigated in recent years by Wieland et aZ. and by Schmid and Karrer. ... 

The material first used by Wieland et al. was gourd curare from the middle Orinoco district, near Urbana, in Bolivar State, Venezuela, but in the fomth paper (1941) results are recorded for curares from Colombia and Venezuela, for which more precise details of origin are not available and there is considerable difference in the nature and quantity of the alkaloids in the various samples used. An examination has also been made of the bark of Strychnos toxifera, and one of the alkaloids (toxiferine II) it contains has been found in some of the curares examined. In all, ten alkaloids have been obtained and characterised and, with the exception of curine, they are all of quaternary type. They are named toxiferine, dihydrotoxiferine, or calabash-curarine (shortened to C-curarine in practice) according to type, and the variants within the type are distinguished by numbers, or numbers and letters, e.g., toxiferine I, toxiferine Ilb. 

Calabash curare, probably from the middle Orinoco region, has also been investigated by Karrer and Schmid,who have isolated eight new alkaloids in addition to Wieland s C-curarine I. 

Calabash-curarine I. This alkaloid was first named toxiferine (1937), as it was expected to be found in Strychnos toxifera bark when this bark yielded a different alkaloid, for which the name toxiferine was more appropriate, the name of the curare alkaloid was changed. Crystalline salts have been prepared of which the chloride, CjoHjaONjCI or HjO,... 

Calabash-curarine II. This alkaloid is best purified through the picrate, m.p. 203-4°. The chloride, CjjHjsONjCl, or Cj HjaNjCl, HjO crystallises in long thin needles, decomposing from 220-320°, [a]J ° -f- 74-3°. The iodide and perchlorate are crystalline. The chloride is readily brominated and nitrated the monosubstituted derivatives are much more active than the parent base. 

Karrer and Matter have confirmed the presence of succinic acid as recorded by Boehm, and of protoeatechuic acid as found by Wieland, Konz and Sonderhoff and have added thereto, mesaconic acid as a constituent of calabash curare. 

Cacalia hastata, 601 Cacotheline, 566 Cactaceae, 154 Cadaverine, 518 Calabar bean alkaloids, 539 Calabarine, 540 Calabash curare, 373 alkaloids, 380... 

Alkaloids of Curare Curine, Tubocurarine, Protocuridine, Calabash-curare I, etc., including Erythrina alkaloids Alkaloids of Ipecacuanha. ... 

Flaschen-hals, m. neck of a bottle or flask. -inhalt, m. contents of a bottle or flask or gas cylinder, -kappe, -kapsel, /. bottle cap. -kiirbis, m. bottle gourd calabash. -achild n. bottle (flask, etc.) label, -stdpsel, -ver-schluss, m. bottle (or flask) stopper or fastener, -zug, m. set of pulleys, block and tackle. 

Kiirbis, m. gourd pumpkin, -baum, m. gourd tree, calabash tree, -gewachse, n.pl. Cucur-bitaceae. -kom, n., -kern, -samen, m. pumpkin seed gourd seed. 

Satinder Ahuja (1, 611) Ahuja Consulting, 1061 Rutledge Ct, Calabash, NC 28467 USA... 

The alkaloid content of curare is from 4% to 7%. The most important constituent in menispermaceous curare is the bis-benzyltetrahydroisoquinoline alkaloid (+)-tubocurarine (Figure 6.48). This is a monoquaternary ammonium salt, and is water soluble. Other main alkaloids include non-quaternary dimeric structures, e.g. isochondrodendrine and curine (bebeerine) (Figure 6.48), which appear to be derived from two molecules of (R)-N-methylcoclaurine, with the former also displaying a different coupling mode. The constituents in loganiaceous curare (from calabash curare, i.e. Strychnos toxifera) are even more complex, and a series of 12 quaternary dimeric strychnine-like alkaloids has been identified, e.g. C-toxiferine (toxiferine-1) (see page 359). 

The earliest available preparations, made as infusions and concentrated to a syrup by the native people, were designated as calabash (gourd), tubo- (bamboo), or pot (clay pot) curare depending upon the containers in which the drug was packaged. Curare is obtained from the upper regions of the Amazon river, the Orinoco basin, and the eastern slopes of the Ecuadorian plateau. The term curare is derived from the Indian name (woorari, urari) for poison (Grollman, 1962). 

Wieland and Neeb140 for the synthesis of some pentacyclic analogs (118) of calabash curare. 

Satinder Ahuja (1, 237, 687) Ahuja Consulting, 330 S. Middleton Drive, Suite 803, Calabash, North Carolina 28467... 

Appendix. Alkaloids of Unknown Structure from Calabash Curare and... 

Calabash curare originates in the more northern parts of the subcontinent, particularly in the Amazon and Orinoco basins and surrounding regions. It is considerably more toxic than tube-curare and has presented much more formidable chemical problems with regard to both isolation and structural elucidation. 

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