Solanaceae family species

Pepper plants have been used for years as herbal remedies for pain. The therapeutically useful pepper plants are members of the Solanaceae family. There are two primary species whose dried fruit is commonly used Capsicum fmtescens and C. annum. The actual active ingredient, capsaicin, is extracted from an oleoresin that represents up to 1.5% of the plant. Two major components in the oleoresin (among several) are capsaicin and 6.7-dihydrocapsaicin. Volatile oils and vitamins A and C occur in large quantities. The amount of ascorbic acid in the capsaicin oleoresin is reportedly 4 to 6 times that in an orange. ... 

Hygrine-type alkaloids are very often detected in members of the Solanaceae family which contain tropane alkaloids. In particular, cuscohygrine is present in nearly all cases. In a similar way but in a smaller number of genera, hygrine is distributed in plants which contain tropane alkaloids, as for example in the Erythroxylum species (Erythroxylaceae). 

Tropane alkaloids mainly occur in the Solanaceae family but are also found in other families such as Convolvulaceae, Erythroxylaceae, Proteaceae and Rhizophoraceae. Less frequently, tropane alkaloids have been mentioned in the Euphorbiaceae, Brassicaceae and Olacaceae families which show no taxonomic relationships with Solanaceae. In several species of Erythroxylum, the tropane alkaloids are characterized by a 3 3-hydroxy function and a carboxyl group at C-2 of the tropane nucleus. The most famous representant of this group is cocaine (Fig. 2). In Table 1 the distribution of tropane alkaloids in the plant kingdom is indicated. 

Solanaceae comprises 2666 species in some 96 genera of herbs, shrubs and a few trees [6]. These plants can be found around the world except in the arctic regions. However, the largest areas of distribution are in South and Central America along the Pacific Coast, where 60 genera have been identified. The Solanaceae family is of great economical importance for its... 

Solanum tuberosum is a species of the Solanaceae family. The pereimial, cross-pollinated plant reaches a height of about 80 cm and develops white or purple flowers and a thick characteristic tuber. The tuber has a starch content of about 15% (fresh matter) consisting of 79% amylopectin and 21% amylose [10]. 

Since chemical synthesis of tropane alkaloids is difficult and expensive, these compounds are still extracted from plants belonging to several species of Solanaceae family including, Hyoscyamuns niger L., Anisodus tanguticus, Scopolia tangutica Maxim, Atropa belladonna, and several Datura species. 

Tropane alkaloids can be synthesized chemically by 11 chemical steps [10], however, the chemical synthesis is complicated, costly and time consuming. For this reason, the isolation of tropane alkaloids from natural sources is still the strategy of choice and it is performed from plants belonging to several species of Solanaceae family [1,6]. 

Finally, the discovery of methylpseudoecgonine (2a-carbomethoxytfopan-3P-ol) in Datura stramonium should be mentioned it represents an isomer of methylecgonine (26-carbomethoxytropan-3P-ol), the precursor of cocaine in Erythroxylum spp. (Erythroxylaceae). No further occurrence of methylpseudoecgonine in the Solanaceae family was reported to date however, it was detected in three convol-vulaceous species. 

Aliphatic Esters of 3a-Hydroxytropane/- ortropane (T2). These metabohtes sean to be frequent in three tribes (Erycibeae, Dichondreae, Cresseae). Apparently, they do not occur in the Jacquemontieae. They turned out to be rather rare in the Convolvuleae (only 6 spp. out of 31) as well as in the Merremieae (4 spp. out of 23). In the largest tribe, Ipomoeeae, one third of the species (24 spp. out of 73) were T2-positive. However, the occurrence was commonly restricted to 3a-acetoxytropane and its nor congener, respectively. In contrast to the Solanaceae family there were only some convolvulaceous species which showed - in addition to the acetyl derivatives - other T2-type metabolites with different acyl residues. These residues were identical with... 

Fig. 5.1 Miscellaneous alkaloids discovered in certain species from the Solanaceae family...

The systematic search for calystegines in the Solanaceae family is not concluded, and many species and whole subfamilies, particularly those that are reported to contain tropane alkaloids, e.g., Schizanthus spedes in the Schizantho-ideae (99,100) remain to be examined. In the whole angiosperm system, the... 

In vitro DH methods that use the culture of anthers, isolated microspores, or ovules, for the improvement of plant species have been reviewed recently (Dun-well, 2010 Ferrie and Caswell, 201 la). Androgenesis, the culture of the male gametophyte, is the preferred method in most of the oilseeds for which there are DH protocols (Table 13.1). This is not new technology but was first reported in 1964 (Guha and Maheshwari, 1964). The early work was mostly with the Solanaceae family but has now been extended to over 250 species (Maluszynski etal.,2003). 

The plants listed above are all species of the botanical family Solanaceae, A considerable number of convolvulus species, which like... 

The tropane alkaloids occur mainly in the plant family Solanaceae but are also found in the families Convolvufaceae, Erythroxylaceae, Proteaceae, and Rhizophoraceae. In addition, the presence of tropane alkaloids has occasionally been indicated in the families Euphorbiaceae and Cruciferae (cf. Tables II and III). For a detailed account of the distribution of tropane alkaloids among species, interested readers should consult Refs. (15-23) and references therein. 

The family Solanaceae consists of about 85 genera and 2800 species of plants, of which, 80 are of medicinal value in the Asia-Pacific region. Solanaceaeare well known for their parasympatholytic tropane alkaloids, such as hyoscyamine. Classic examples are Atropa belladonna L. (belladona herb, British Pharmacopoeia 1963), Datura stramonium L. (stramonium, British Pharmacopoeia, 1963), and the dried leaves and flowering tops of Hyoscyamus... 

Quinolizidine alkaloids (QA) are thought to be typical natural products of many Leguminosae (1-3) but a few isolated occurrences have been reported also in unrelated families, e.g. Chenopodiaceae ( 1 ), Berberidaceae ( ), Papaveraceae ( ), Scrophulariaceae ( ), Santalaceae ( ), Solanaceae ( ), and Ranunculaceae (J ). These observations could indicate that the genes for QA biosynthesis are probably not restricted to the Leguminosae but are widely distributed in the plant kingdom however, they are only rarely expressed in the other families. We could support this belief by recent experiments using plant cell suspension cultures. A short-term and transientQA formation could be detected after induction even in "QA-free" species, such as Daucus, Spinacia, Conium, and Symphytum (6). 

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