Monoterpene alkaloids transformation

During the past two decades a great number of papers have been published on the isolation, structure elucidation, synthesis and transformation, biogenesis, chemotaxonomy, and pharmacology of indole alkaloids. In this chapter we summarize the new results that appeared from 1968 to mid 1984 for the cory-nantheine-yohimbine group of monoterpene indole alkaloids with greater emphasis on their chemistry, excluding the related oxindoles and heteroyohimbines. 

Hydroxy-3-methylcarbazole (52) could also function as a precursor for the formation of carbazole alkaloids with a C23 skeleton as depicted in Scheme 3.6 (370). Insertion of a Cio unit, viz., geraniol at C-1 of 2-hydroxy-3-methylcarbazole (52) would yield mahanimbinol (mahanimbilol) (56). The geranyl monoterpene unit could undergo various transformations, thus giving rise to isomeric carbazole alkaloids with a C23 skeleton, such as mahanimbine (139), cyclomahanimbine (murrayazolidine, curryanin) (151), and bicyclomahanimbine (160). Therefore, mahanimbinol (mahanimbilol) could be considered as the representative member of the carbazoles with a C23 skeleton. The occurrence of 2-hydroxy-3-methylcarbazole (52),... 

Metabolic transformations are characterized by high speed and yield, as well as high regio-, diastereo-and enantio-specificity. Errors in the stereochemistry of the molecules that serve to construct the genetic material are smaller than for the planetary motions. With secondary metabolites, however, enantiomerically inq)ure con unds are also encoimtered, typkally with monoterpenes and alkaloids from terrestrial plants even ant dal pathways in the same organism have been found, albeit as rare events (Guella 1998). 

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