Chelerythrine from berberine

Alkaloids isolated from celandine (chelerythrine, sanguin-arine, berberine, and coptisine) had a significant inhibitory effect in mitochondrial respiration in mouse liver cells (Barreto et al. 2003). 

The ease of formation of pseudobases (carbinolamines) from a variety of isoquinolinium salts has been investigated. Increasing pH facilitates pseudobase formation. Nitidine forms a pseudobase more readily than berberine, while 6,7-dimethoxy-2-methylisoquinoline did not form a pseudobase even at pH 13.2 Sanguinarine and chelerythrine acetates exist in an equilibrium mix-... 

Seed oils and capsule extracts of several other papaveraceous plants, from the genera Chelidonium, Eschscholzia, Papaver, and Platystemon, are also active. While dihydrosanguinarine is inactive, chelerythrine (6a) and berberine (9) are active (Hakim 1954). Intravenous injections of other types of isoquinoline alkaloids have also been shown to be active (but in much higher doses than sanguinarine) — they include codeine (lb), noscapine (narcotine) (2), papaverine (5), bulbocapnine (11), corydine (11a), and chelidonine (12) (Lieb and Scherf 1956). 

---