The furanobisindole alkaloid, phalarine, possesses a unique structural framework within the alkaloid family of natural products. Our laboratory recently disclosed the racemic total synthesis of phalarine, featuring an efficient azaspiroindolenine rearrangement; this achievement is revisited in detail. Upon completion of the first-generation total synthesis, we explored some interesting mechanis...

A dihydropyridone alkaloid, cenocladamide, and a derivative of piplartine, 4'-desmethylpiplartine were isolated along with piplartine from the leaves of Piper cenocladum. The structures of the new compounds were determined by spectroscopic methods and by comparison to piplartine. Concentrations of these amides in plants with and without ant mutualists, are compared.

Mass-directed isolation of the CH(2)Cl(2)/CH(3)OH extract from a marine sponge of the genus Pseudoceratina resulted in the purification of a new antimalarial bromotyrosine alkaloid, psammaplysin H (1), along with the previously isolated analogs psammaplysins G (2) and F (3). The structure of 1 was elucidated following 1D and 2D NMR, and MS data analysis. All compounds were tested in vitro again...

Aptamers, that exist naturally in living cells as functional elements and can switch nonfluorescent natural targets to fluorophores, are very useful in developing highly sensitive and selective biosensors and screening functional agents. This work demonstrates that human telomeric G-quadruplex (HTG) can serve as a potential fluorophore-switching aptamer (FSA) to target a natural isoquinoline al...

Psychotrine dihydrogen oxalate and O-methylpsychotrine sulfate heptahydrate (MP), the salts of isoquinoline alkaloids from ipecac, were found to be potent inhibitors of the DNA polymerase activity of human immunodeficiency virus-1 reverse transcriptase (HIV-1 RT). We currently report the results of additional studies designed to characterize the mechanism of inhibition facilitated by MP. The in...