Stemona japonica

Suzuki has explained that the plant from which he isolated stemonine and stemonidine is not, as at first supposed, Stemona japonica Miq. After further investigation it has been named Stemona ovata Nakai and from it he has isolated a third alkaloid, iso stemonidine, m.p. 137°, [a]D — 84-9°, to which the following extended formula has been assigned, Ci 28(NH)(0H),(0—CO)(CO). 

Stemona japonica (BI.) Miq. S. tubemsa Lour. Bai Bu Dei Ye Bei Bu (root) Stemonine, isotemonidine, stemonidine, protostemonine.33 50 Suppress excitation of the respiratory center and inhibit the cough reflex. Antitubercular, antibacterial, antifugal. 

Aconitum barbatum, A. austroyunnanense, Stemona japonica, S. tuberosa... 

Stemofoline is an insecticidal alkaloid produced in the leaves and stems of the plant Stemona japonica. It has a good spectrum of activity, with rapid action, and is a potent agonist of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor in insects. These features make it a promising lead, except that its highly complex polycyclic structure is a real challenge for synthesis (Figure 3). 

Stemona alkaloids. Root extracts of the medicinal plants Stemona japonica and S. tuberosa (Stemona-ceae) have been used in Chinese and Japanese folk medicine as insecticides, anthelmintics, and as drugs for the treatment of tuberculosis, bronchitis and pertussis. Responsible for the activities is a group of more than 20 polycyclic alkaloids with diverse structures, e.g. protostemonine CjsHsiNOj, Mr 417.50, mp. 172-173 °C, [alD +148° (CH3OH) and stemofoline. 

Pyrido[l,2-fl]azepine core is common to a group of alkaloids extracts from Stemona plants (Stemonaceae). Stemona together Pentastemona, Croomia, and Stichoneuron are four genera of Stemonaceae. The roots of three species, Stemona tuberosa, Stemona japonica, and Stemona sessifolia, have been used for centuries in traditional Chinese medicine for a variety of purposes such as treatment of cough, bronchitis, tuberculosis, pertussis, and as antiparasitic agents [1-5],... 

Sakata, K., K. Aoki, C. Chang, A. Sakurai, S. Tamura, and S. Murakoshi, Stemospironine, a new insecticidal alkaloid of Stemona japonica Miq. Isolation, structural determination and activity, Agric. Biol. Chem., 42, 457-463 (1978). 

Sano M, Terada M, Akira, Ishii I et al. 1981 Comparative pharmacology in parasitic helminths and host organs (1). Neuropharmacological action of alkaloids from Stemona japonica and Sophora flavescens. Jap J Pharmacol Suppl 31 SOP... 

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