Echinops ritro

Echinopsine. From Echinops Ritro (seeds) and other Echinops spp. Greshoff isolated this alkaloid, which Spath and Kolbe have shown is l-methyl-4-quinolone. Greshoff also obtained from the same source fi-echinopsine, m.p. 135°, and echinopseine. 

Fokialakis N, Cantrell CL, Duke SO, Skaltsounis AL, Wedge DE, Antifungal activity of thiophenes from Echinops ritro. UJAgric Food Chem 54 1651—1655, 2006. 

Van den Ende, W., Clerens, S., Vergauwen, R., Boogaerts, D., Le Roy, K., Arckens, L., and Van Laere, A., Cloning and functional analysis of a high DP fructan fructan 1-fructosyl transferase from Echinops ritro (Asteraceae) comparison of the native and recombinant enzymes, Exp. Bot., 57, 775-789, 2006. 

Vergauwen, R., Van Laere, A., and Van den Ende, W., Properties of fructan fructan 1-fructosyltransferase (1-FFT) from Cichorium intybus L. and Echinops ritro L., two Asteraseae plants storing greatly different types of inulin, Plant Physiol., 133, 391 401, 2003. 

Echinopsine, l-Methyl-4(lH).quinolinone 1-metkyl-4[Pg.548]

One of the simplest quinoline alkaloids obtained from higher plants is echinopsine, which was isolated from the seeds of Echinops ritro (Astraceae) [2]. The chemical structure of this alkaloid was determined in 1922 [3] and it was synthesized by several groups [4-8]. No studies on the biosynthesis of this alkaloid have been conducted, but it is possible that anthranilic acid is the biosynthetic precursor. 

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