Swainsonia canescens

An investigation at Murdoch University into the toxic agent in the Western Australian fabaceous plant, Swainsonia canescens, which causes staggers in horses, led to the isolation of the indolizidine alkaloid swainsonine (95). The symptoms caused by ingestion of this plant were very similar to those observed in another veterinary disorder known to be occasioned by lack of a-mannosida.se, and the Murdoch group was able to show that swainsonine did in fact cause inhibition of this enzyme [112]. 

Swainsonine was isolated from the Australian legume Swainsonia canescens 18) and in the United States from two species of locoweed Astragalus lentiginosum and Oxytropis sericea 19), Swainsonine is a strong inhibitor of a-mannosidase. 

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