Chondrodendron tomentosum plant

Chondrodendron tomentosum plant Picric acid Hydrogen chloride... 

Chondrodendron tomentosum plant. It initially produced motor weakness followed by flaccid paralysis after parenteral administration. The paralysis occurs in following order e.g. paralysis of fingers, toes, eyes, ears producing diplopia, speech slurring, difficulty in swallowing the muscles of neck, limb, trunk, paralysis of diaphragm and death occur due to hypoxia. 

Chondrodendron tomentosum plant, by extraction Tubocurarine chloride Cytidine-5 -monophosphate, by fermentation Citicoline... 

Alkaloids of Chondrodendron tomentosum. Butcher has examined a curare prepared by Indians of the Upper Amazon, in which the only plant used was Chondrodendron tomentosum, Ruiz and Pavon. From it he isolated the known alkaloids, d-tjochondrodendrine (p. 365), d-wochondro-... 

These results seemed to establish with certainty that the active component of tube curare is derived from Chondrodendron tomentosum, but the matter again became doubtful when King reported that in the stems of a carefully authenticated specimen of the plant, collected at Tarapoto in Peru, he had found 1-curine and Z-tubocurarine chloride. This is the first recorded natural occurrence of the latter and seems to indicate either that the alkaloidal components of the plant are not constant in character, or that the botanical description of Chondrodendron tomentosum covers two species containing the dextro- and Icevo- quaternary alkaloids respectively. 

The initial step involves extraction of the stems and bark of the plant Chondrodendron tomentosum with water as the solvent. 

Curare is often used as a general term to describe a wide variety of highly toxic plant extracts. Curare was originally used by South American Indians as an arrow poison that caused paralysis of skeletal muscle of prey being hunted. Curare was first used medically as a muscle relaxant in 1912. An extract from Chondrodendron tomentosum has been used clinically to reduce spasms in patients with tetanus and those treated with shock therapy, and to treat muscular rigidity and spastic paralysis. Curare is also used as an adjunct to general anesthesia. 

Menispermaceae contains many medicinal and toxic plants. Some of the South American Menispermaceae were used by native Indians for their curare activity [7]. The western world was introduced to the muscle relaxants by the Spaniards, who encountered these arrow poisons in 1514 [7, 95]. The main South American Menispermaceae species used to prepare pot/tube curare are Chondrodendron tomentosum, and three of the four known curarea genus, Curarea candicans, C. tecunarum and C. toxicofera [7]. 

Curare was first identified when Spanish soldiers in South America found themselves the unwilling victims of poisoned arrows. It was discovered that the Indians were putting a poison on to the tips of their arrows. This poison was a crude, dried extract from a plant called Chondrodendron tomentosum and caused paralysis as well as stopping the heart. We now know that curare is a mixture of compounds. The active principle, however, is an antagonist of acetylcholine which blocks nerve transmissions from nerve to muscle. 

In 1939 King (123) obtained both the leaves and liana of the plant amphi huasa (poison rope) which is used by the Indians near Tarapoto in northern Peru for the preparation of curare. It was identified as Chondrodendron tomentosum, and chemical examination showed that it contained Z-curine (Z-bebeerine) and Z-tubocurarine chloride and not d-tubo-curarine chloride as expected. However Wintersteiner and Dutcher (81)... 

Curare. General name for arrow poisons produced by the Indians in tropical South America from the barks of many Strychnos species, especially S. toxifera. Other plants such as Chondrodendron tomentosum are used for the same purpose. For further names for the toxin, see Lit.. Of the 40 alkaloids contained in C., only those with two quaternary nitrogen atoms show the typical toxic action. C-Curarine I (see toxiferines) and C-dihydrotoxiferine are the most active compounds. Depending on the compositions, distinctions are made between ... 

So-called tube curares (because they are stored in bamboo tubes) often are prepared from the menispermaceous plant Chondrodendron tomentosum. These extracts are prepared and used in localized areas of the upper Amazon and Colombia. Most of the active alkaloids are bisbenzylisoquinoline alkaloids. The major alkaloid is tubocurarine (97), a quaternary species. 

Full understanding is hampered by current deficiencies in our knowledge of the chemical composition of the plants concerned—for tubocurarine has so far only been found in Chondrodendron tomentosum—yet, as demonstrated by the curare formulas given in Section 1.2.3.1, there are curares from regions 2 and 3 that do not have this species as an ingredient, so that their muscle-relaxant activity must be due to alkaloids from other plants, e.g. Abuta (cf. Section 1.4.6.4) or Cur area species. 

Chondrodendron tomentosum Ruiz et Pavon is a large liane, up to 20 m long, with yellow green flowers its stems may be round or flat. As Table 1.2 makes clear, it is the species characteristic of curares prepared in the Montana, from the Colombia/Ecuador border region as far south as Huanuco in Peru. Interestingly, the plant has a much wider distribution (140, 234) and it has been collected in Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, and in Brazil (on the Rio Jurua in the western part of the State of Amazonas). 

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