Barringtonia asiatica also known as “fish killer tree” is one of the mangrove plants that grows in tropical Asia and Pacific, including Northern Australia, the seeds of which are used as fish poison [1,2]. In previous paper, we reported that the triterpene moieties of saponins from the seeds of B. asiatica were camelliagenin A (1) [1] and A1-barrigenol (2). [2] Both camelliagenin A (1), C30H50O...

Among the various physical methods enjoying wide use by organic chemists, mass spectrometry is the most recent and probably also the most spectacular addition. It is not surprising, therefore, that it has also found rapid acceptance in the steroid field. Indeed, many of the recent generalisations about mass spectral fragmentation mechanisms of organic molecules were first established by model s...

western regions of the People’s Republic of China. As a Chinese folk medicine, this species has usually been used for treatment of rheumatic diseases and snake-bite. In previous investigations, we have reported the isolation and structural elucidation of several steroidal sapogenins, flavans, and a pregnane genin from this species. Our current phytochemical study for new efficient agents has le...

Glucuronide conjugation of xenobiotics containing a tertiary amine moiety represents a unique and important metabolic pathway for these compounds in humans. Previously, human UDP-glucuronosyltransferase (UGT) 1A4 was shown to be an important enzyme for the formation of quaternary ammonium-linked glucuronides. UGT1A3 is 93% identical to UGT1A4 in primary amino acid sequence. We show that human U...