Meadow Saffron, Colchicine

Also mentioned in the aforecited book are colchicine and colchidnamide, derived from the common autumn crocus (Colchicum autumnale), also called meadow saffron. (Colchicine, incidentally, is used in plant gaieties to artificially produce mutations.) The notable use cited is against breast cancer, but gout and arthritis also yield to treatment. It is emphasized that both these alkaloids are potent, and their use requires expert medical supervision. Another plant mentioned is cro-talaria (Crotalaria spectabilis), from which a toxic alkaloid called monocrotaline may be obtained. This substance also has antitumor properties, but acts against the liver. 

Several groups of drugs that bind to tubulin at different sites interfere with its polymerization into microtubules. These drugs are of experimental and clinical importance (Bershadsky and Vasiliev, 1988). For example, colchicine, an alkaloid derived from the meadow saffron plant Colchicum autumnale or Colchicum speciosum), is the oldest and most widely studied of these drugs. It forms a molecular complex with tubulin in the cytosol pool and prevents its polymerization into microtubules. Other substances such as colcemid, podophyllotoxin, and noco-dazole bind to the tubulin molecule at the same site as colchicine and produce a similar effect, albeit with some kinetic differences. Mature ciliary microtubules are resistant to colchicine, whereas those of the mitotic spindle are very sensitive. Colchicine and colcemid block cell division in metaphase and are widely used in cytogenetic studies of cultured cells to enhance the yield of metaphase plate chromosomes. 

Colchicine (6) was isolated by Pelletier and Caventou in 1820 and is the main alkaloid of the poisonous meadow saffron plant (Colchicum autum-nale L.) [12-16]. Following some considerable debate over colchicine s structure [17-20] and its successful synthesis [21-26], colchicine was found to bind to tubulin at what is referred to as the colchicine binding site [1,27]. 

Colchicine (an alkaloid obtained from meadow saffron or autumn crocus) may be used both diagnostically to ascertain the presence of gout and prophylactically to prevent its further occurrence. Usually, 0.5-mg oral doses of colchicine are given hourly until either the therapeutic effects appear or the side effects develop. In addition to colchicine, phenylbutazone, indomethacin, adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), and steroidal anti-inflammatory agents may be used to treat the acute attack of gout. 

This book shows how Eastern physicians used meadow saffron, which is good for gout, but also provides evidence that meadow saffron possesses colchicines, an antigoutic medication, and provides the mechanisms of action for it. 

The natural compound colchicine (1) was extracted from the poisonous meadow saffron Colchicum autumnale L. and was the first antimitotic destabilizing agent to be discovered [9], It consists of three rings a trimethoxyphenyl (TMP, ring A), a... 

Colchicine Natural product from meadow saffron (genus Colchicum). Depolymerizes microtubules. 

LOIC C Colchicum and demecolchicine Colchicine is an alkaloid, previously extracted from the seeds of the Autumn Crocus or Meadow-saffron, Colchicum autumnale L., but nowadays from the seeds of Gloriosa,... 

AUTUMN CROCUS (or Meadow-Saffron) Colchicum cmtumnak, L., family Colchicaceae, is cultivated as an ornamental plant in gardens. The whole plant, mainly the seed, contains the alkaloid colchicine. 

Colchicine. Extracted from the seeds of the common meadow saffron has similar properties to veratrine, but is crystalline, and soluble in water. 

Colchlcum Corm. Meadow saffron autumn crocus wild saffron meadow crocus. Dried corm of Co/chicum maimnale L., Liliaceae. Habit. Central and Southern Europe, North Africa. Consllt. 0.3-0 5% colchicine, colchi- in. colchicoresin, starch, etc. Detn of colchicine in colchicine corm Self, Corfield, Quart. J. Pharm. Pharmacol S, 347(1932). 

Colchicine is present in the poisonous autumn crocus (meadow saffron). It is the major alkaloid of Colchicum autumnale L. and Lili-aceae. It was used in poison potions in the ancient kingdom of Colchis (Greece). It is used therapeutically as an antineoplast, for the suppression of gout, and in the treatment of Mediterranean fever. It is nsed in plant studies for doubling chromosome groups. 

Colchicine is marketed in tablets used for treatment of gout and familial Mediterranean fever and is found in certain plants autumn crocus or meadow saffron (Colchicum autumnale) and glory lily Gloriosa superba). A colchicine overdose is ex-... 

Their occurrence is limited to the Liliaceae, e. g., Col-chicum, Kreysigia, anAAndrocymbium species (see table). They are readily soluble in water, chloroform, and ethanol. Colchicine is one of the few natural tropolone derivatives, see, e. g., fomentariol. It occurs together with other, structurally related alkaloids (colchamine, colchicoside, colchiceine, colchiciline, colchifoline) in meadow saffron (autumnal crocus, naked lady, Col-chicum aummnale). Colchicine is a highly potent mi-... 

Saffron genus Colchicum (Colchicum L.) produces colchicines. Metacolchicine is in Sandersonia aurantiaca and other colchicines in meadow saffron (Colchicum autumnale L.). Stereoidal alkaloids in the Liliaceae family are found in the Hellebore genus (Veratrum Bemch.). Jervine, cyclo-pamine (Figure 1.18), cycloposine, protoveratrine A, and protoveratrine B yield Veratrum album. Veramadines A and B are reported to be found in Veratratum mackii var. japonicum. O-Acetyljervine has been reported in the false hellebore (Veratrum lobelianum Bemch.). Steroidal alkaloids... 

The second example presented here is colchicine, the alkaloid of the meadow saffron (autumn crocus). The structure elucidation of this compound took decades, until a crystal structure analysis unveiled the presence of a tropolone ring [12]. The accumulated knowledge about tropolones at that time offered no hint as to how to approach an anellated tropolone unit such as is present in colchicine. The first synthesis of colchicine by Eschenmoser [13, 14] had to chart new territory. 

Although the toxic effects of industrially produced aromatics have generally been well investigated, relatively little is known in many instances about the numerous poisons which occur naturally. Highly toxic natural aromatic poisons are, for example, aflatoxin Bi, which is produced as a metabolic product of Aspergillus flavus, and colchicine, obtained from the meadow saffron. 

Results obtained in the National Cancer Institute of the USA from the study of the cytostatic activity of the (133) and bis(chloroethyl)amino derivatives on 60 tumor lines were reported [138]. Originally colchicine a soluble alkaloid was extracted from Colchicum autumnale also known as autumn crocus, meadow saffron or itkuchala in Uzbekistan which means dog poison [138]. 

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