Different lineages of fungi produce distinct classes of ergot alkaloids. Lysergic acid-derived ergot alkaloids produced by fungi in the Clavicipitaceae are particularly important in agriculture and medicine. The pathway to lysergic acid is partly elucidated, but the gene encoding the enzyme that oxidizes the intermediate agroclavine is unknown. We investigated two candidate agroclavine oxidase ...

Alkaloids containing a central bicyclo[n.2.2]piperazinedione (diketopiperazine, DKP, n 2) ring system, bridged at positions 3 and 6, constitute an ever-growing class of secondary metabolites. DKPs 1, biosynthesized from amino acids either by nonribosomal peptide synthases (NRPS) or by tRNA-dependent enzymes called cyclodipeptide synthases (CDPS), are the central precursors, from which diverse a...

There has been enormous progress over the past fifteen years or so in our understanding of the ways in which complex natural products are synthesized in living systems. In the field of alkaloids, as elsewhere, research during the initial phase1 pin-pointed those substances which are used as the common building blocks, examples being acetic acid, ornithine and lysine for the reduced systems, and...

Different classes of known alkaloid compounds were identified for the first time in leaves and barks of Ficus benjamina L. from Moraceae family. The identification of 28 alkaloids in F. benjamina leaves and 14 alkaloids in its barks was identified using chromatographic analysis as Gas Chromatography associated to Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). This characterization analysis allows to verifying the ...

Thirteen alkaloids have been isolated from dried bulbs and leaves of flowering Eucharis amazonica (Amaryllidaceae). The alkaloids, 7-methoxyoxoassoanine, 6-O-methylpretazettine and apohaemanthamine, are reported for the first time from a natural source.

The microbial transformation of four Cinchona alkaloids (quinine, quinidine, cinchonidine, and cinchonine) by endophytic fungi isolated from Cinchona pubescens was investigated. The endophytic filamentous fungus Xylaria sp. was found to transform the Cinchona alkaloids into their 1-N-oxide derivatives.

Laboratory cultures of the fungus Plectosphaerella cucumerina obtained from marine sediments collected in Barkley Sound, British Columbia, yielded the novel alkaloids plectosphaeroic acids A (1) to C (3). The alkaloids 1-3 are inhibitors of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO).