Sanguinarine from Macleaya cordata

Wang XJ, Min CL, Ge M, Zuo RH. An endophytic sanguinarine-producing fungus from Macleaya cordata, Fusarium proliferatum BLH51. Curr Microbiol 2014 68 (3) 336 1. 

Macleaya cordata (Papaveraceae) contains alkaloids in alkaloid cells filled with yellow to orange-red liquid (27). Alkaloid cells were observed as bluish yellow fluorescence in transverse and longitudinal sections of roots of M. cordata with a fluorescence microscope (48). Four main alkaoloids are known to be present in roots of M. cordata, namely, sanguinarine and chelerythrine, which are benzo[c]phenanthridine alkaloids red and yellow in color, respectively, and protopine and allocryptopine, which are colorless protopines. The liquid from colored cells in M. cordata roots was aspirated into the microtrap under a microaspiratoscope. The liquid remaining in the capillary and the connector tubes between the capillary and microtrap was washed into the microtrap with the solvent used for HPLC analysis. It was shown that the liquid of colored cells contained all four alkaloids, judging by comparison with authentic samples on HPLC. Therefore, HC proved the colored cells to be the alkaloid cells named by Neumann and Muller. 

The species of the genus Macleaya, namely M. cordata and M. micro-carpa, perennial herbs from the Far East, are used in Russia as a source of the natural mixture of sanguinarine and chelerythrine (called sanguiritrine), that has been introduced into medicine for the treatment of various diseases. The content of QBA in the leaves ofM microcarpa has been found to be unusually high, up to 1.97% [66], The QBA contents in M. microcarpa and M. cordata cultivated in central Europe [37,38] are considerably lower. Similar low yields have been found by Bulgarian, Japanese, and Russian authors [5,6], Chelirubine, chelilutine, and macarpine have also been isolated from Macleaya species [37,38], The alkaloid bocconine [35], isolated from M. cordata (invalid synonym Bocconia cordata Willd.) in 1965, is identical to chelirubine [34], described for the first time in 1954 [30],... 

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