The Alkaloids of Vinca herbacea and V. lancea

Vinca lancea, more properly named Catharanthus lanceus (Boj. ex A.DC.) Pich. and indigenous to Madagascar, has been shown to contain yohimbine (73), ajmalicine (74), tetrahydroalstonine, and a new base (75) with a j8-anilinoacrylate chromophore, lanceine, C20H26N2O3 or C24H30N2O4, mp 198°, [a]D +64° (EtOH) and +62° (CHCI3). The latter compound, upon lithium aluminum hydride reduction, yielded an indoline that was readily acetylated. 

Preliminary pharmacological studies on V. herbacea have not yielded any very interesting results (85). 

Queensland Agr. J. 23, 143 (1925) J. M. Watt and Breyer-Brandwijk, The Medicinal and Poisonous Plants of Southern Africa, Livingstone, Edinburgh, 1932 R. N. Chopra, R. L. Badhwar, and S. Ghosh, Poisonous Plants of India, Govt. India Press, Calcutta, 1949 A. Petelot, Les Plantes medicinales du Cambodge, du Laos, and du Vietnam, Vol. 2, p. 117. Saigon, 1953. 

Paris and H. Moyse-Mignon, Compt. Rend. Acad. Sci. 236, 1993 (1953). 

Shimizu and F. Uchimaru, Chem. Pharm. Bull. (Tokyo) 6, 324 (1958). 

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