Rauvolfia serpentina

But that was only one half of the logic behind the chemical-imbalance theory. The other half came from studies of reserpine, a drug that was extracted from Rauvolfia serpentina or the Indian snakeroot plant, which had historically been used to treat snakebite, hypertension, insomnia and insanity. In studies of animals, reserpine was reported to induce sedation and to decrease brain levels of norepinephrine, serotonin and dopamine. Clinical reports indicated that some people became severely depressed when taking reserpine.14 Putting these two findings together, it seemed likely that reserpine made people depressed because it decreased neurotransmitter levels. 

D-tubocurarine from Chondrodendron tomentosum Ruiz et Pav. and Rauvolfia serpentina Benth. et Kurz and horse radish peroxidase 3 mg/ml, which prevent the peroxide formation, block the fruit formation as a whole, while yohimbine and gaillardine inhibit the seed formation. Neostigmine stimulates the fruit and seed yield, although its precursor physostigmine has no significant effect (Roshchina and Melnikova, 1998). 

KUTCHAN, T.M., HAMPP, N., LOTTSPEICH, F., BEYREUTHER, K., ZENK, M.H., The cDNA clone for strictosidine synthase from Rauvolfia serpentina - DNA sequence determination and expression in Escherichia col., FEBSLett., 1988, 237,40-44. 

HAMPP, N., ZENK, M.H., Homogeneous strictosidine synthase from cell suspension cultures of Rauvolfia serpentina, Phytochemistry, 1988,27, 3811-3815. 

KUTCHAN, T.M., Expression of enzymatically active cloned strictosidine synthase from the higher plant Rauvolfia serpentina in Escherichia coli, FEBS Lett., 1989, 257, 127-130. 

Bracher, D. and Kutchan, T. M. 1992. Strictosidine synthase from Rauvolfia serpentina Analysis of a gene involved in indole alkaloid biosynthesis. Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics, 294 717-723. 

Reserpine Alkaloid Antihypertensive (reduces blood pressure) Rauvolfia serpentina (Indian snakeroot)... 

N.A. Rauvolfia serpentina (L.) Benth. Indole alkaloids, reserpine, rescinnamine, ajmaline, yohimbine.99 Regulate hearbeat, treat high blood pressure and anxiety. Sedative and depressant effect on sympathetic nervous system. 

Rauvolfia serpentina, Strychnos nux-vomica Cannabis sativa... 

Rauwolfia is the dried rhizome and roots of Rauwolfia (sometimes Rauvolfia) serpentina (Apocynaceae) or snakeroot, a small shrub from India, Pakistan, Burma, and Thailand. Other species used in commerce include R. vomitoria from tropical Africa, a small tree whose leaves after ingestion cause violent vomiting, and R. canescens = R. tetraphylla) from India and the... 

Within the natural products field, the investigation of complete biosynthetic pathways at the enzyme level has been especially successful for plant alkaloids of the monoterpenoid indole alkaloid family generated from the monoterpene gluco-side secologanin and decarboxylation product of tryptophan, tryptamine [3-5]. The most comprehensive enzymatic data are now available for the alkaloids ajmalicine (raubasine) from Catharanthus roseus, and for ajmaline from Indian Rauvolfia serpentina [6] the latter alkaloid with a six-membered ring system bearing nine chiral carbon atoms. Entymatic data exsist also for vindoline, the vincaleucoblastin (VLB) precursor for which some studies on enzymatic coupling of vindoline and catharanthine exist in order to get the so-called dimeric Catharanthus indole-alkaloids VLB or vincristine [7-9] with pronounced anti-cancer activity [10, 11]. 

Rhazinilam 3 is an axially chiral phenyl-pyrrole compound which was first isolated from Melodinus australis (F. Muell.) Pierre [53]. It has also been found in other Apocynaceae such as Rhazya stricta Decaisne [54,55], Aspidosperma quebracho-bianco Schlecht. [56,57], Leuconitis eugenifolia A. DC [58,59] and Kopsia singapurensis [60]. More recently, (-)-rhazinilam was isolated from intergeneric somatic hybrid cell cultures of two Apocynaceae, Rauvolfia serpentina Benth. Ex Kurz and Rhazia stricta Decaisne [61]. 

Ma X, Panjikar S, Koepke J, Loris E, Stockigt J. The structure of 86. Rauvolfia serpentina strictosidine synthase is a novel six-bladed beta-propeller fold in plant proteins. Plant Cell 2006 18 907-920. 

Twenty-two standards Monoterpenoid indole Rauvolfia serpentina or Analytical RPC 239... 

An efficient transformation of maline (17) into raumacline (144), which is a biotransformation product of ajmaline in cell cultures of Rauvolfia serpentina, was developed by Endress and StSckigt (168). Ajmaline (17) was reduced with NaBH4 in citrate/phosphate buffered solution (pH 6.0) to 4,21-secoajmaline (145), which, by riboflavin-sensitized photo-oxidation, afforded raumacline (144) in 86% total yield (Scheme 13). 

---