Potent root name

In 1946, Goncalves deLima, a Brazilian ethnobotanist and chemist, extracted an alkaloid from roots of Mimosa hostilis, another member of the pea family, which has been used by natives of eastern Brazil to prepare a potent psychoactive drink. He named this "nigerine later it was found to be identical to DMT, first synthesized in 1931 by the British chemist Richard Manske. 

Attention should also be drawn to recent publications on the isolation of a new hypotensive factor from the roots of R. serpentina (120). In these publications, the separation of the crude alkaloids from fresh undried R. serpentina roots into four alkaloidal complexes is reported. The first three fractions have been named resajmaline, ajmalexine, and serpajmaline, respectively. The serpajmaline fraction is said to be therapeutically active and also is claimed to contain serpentinine, serpentine, ajmaline, and two unknown substances, one of which is probably reserpiline. This fraction is said also to be free from reserpine and to be much more potent in its hypotensive activity than reserpine, but to lack reserpine s sedative and central nervous depressant action. However, a later pharmacological investigation of an authentic water-soluble serpajmaline fraction (alkaloids present as salts) demonstrated that the type of antihypertensive activity observed closely resembles that of serpentine and serpentinine (121). This conclusion receives support from a chemical study of this fraction in which serpentinine, ajmaline, and tetraphyllicine were obtained in a pure state (121). 

To date, there is only a single report on unique cyclic thiosulfmates, named zeylanoxides, and known secoiridoid glucosides, both groups discovered as constituents of the tropical weed Sphenoclea zeylanica Gaertn. (Sphenocleaceae), one of the most serious weeds of rice. All these metaboUtes are assumed to be potent allelochemicals since they completely inhibited the root growth of rice seedlings at 3.0mM (Hirai et al. 2(XX)). 

The antitussive activity of the aqueous and alkaloid extracts from the roots of S. tuberosa, and five isolated stenine-type alkaloids neostenine, also named isostenine (3), tuberostemonine J (6), tuberostemonine H (7), pi-bisdehydroneotuberostemonine J (12) and neotuberostemonine (13), were evaluated in a guinea pig cough model. The alkaloid extract showed much more potent activity than the aqueous extract, indicating that the Stemona alkaloids are responsible for the antitussive activity of S. tuberosa. Neotuberostemonine (13) was the most active alkaloid, followed by neostenine, also named isostenine (3), tuberostemonine H (7), and tuberostemonine J (6) (2). 

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