BACKGROUND The Macleaya spp., including Macleaya cordata and Macleaya microcarpa, are traditional anti-virus, inflammation eliminating, and insecticide herb medicines for their isoquinoline alkaloids. They are also known as the basis of the popular natural animal food addictive in Europe. However, few studies especially at genomics level were conducted on them. Hence, we performed the Macleaya ...

The antibacterial activity of 80% ethanol extracts of 10 medicinal plants collected in Yunnan (Southwest China), was tested against clinical isolates of extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing strains. Their MIC values ranged between 1.56-12.50 mg/mL. The most active plant extract was Chelidonium majus L. (MIC = 1.56 mg/mL). Two potent isoquinoline alkaloids, 8-hydroxydihydrosanguinarine...

Bioactive alkaloids occupy an important position in applied chemistry and play an indispensable role in medicinal chemistry. Amongst them, isoquinoline alkaloids like berberine, palmatine and coralyne of protoberberine group, sanguinarine of the benzophenanthridine group, and their derivatives represent an important class of molecules for their broad range of clinical and pharmacological utilit...

An enzyme has been found in different species of isoquinoline alkaloid-producing plant cell cultures which specifically N-methylates certain (S)-tetrahydroprotoberberine alkaloids such as (S)-canadine and (S)-stylopine at the expense of S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM). It was partiaily purified (90-fold) from Eschscholtzia calijornica cell suspension cultures and characterized. The enzyme has a p...

The main alkaloids of Antizoma miersiana and one of two species of the southern African endemic genus Antizoma (Menispermaceae), have been studied for the first time. Eight isoquinoline alkaloids could be positively identified (structural type in brackets): crotsparine (proaporphine); bulbocapnine and dicentrine (aporphine); cissacapine, cycleaneonine, cycleanine, insulanoline and insularine (b...