Medicinal Alkaloids from the Mountains of Idaho

Veratrum californicum is a plant native to the mountainous regions of Idaho. Throughout the growth cycle of the plant steroid alkaloids are produced, interconverted, and ultimately degraded. Efforts in our lab focus on evaluating the composition of steroid alkaloids present in different parts of the plant (root, stem, or leaf) during the growth season. Motivation for this effort is the recent emergence of drug studies based on synthetic derivatives of cyclopamine and veratramine, two steroid alkaloids produced by V. californicaum. Cyclopamine has proven to inhibit the hedgehog-signaling pathway and has potential as a valuable agent in cancer cell treatments and psoriasis. Here we describe our efforts to extract the steroid alkaloids from V. californicaum using solvent soaking and ultrasonication followed by isolation with high-performance liquid chromatography and characterization by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and mass spectrometry

Cyclopamine Bioactivity by Extraction Method from \u3cem\u3eVeratrum californicum\u3c/em\u3e

Veratrum californicum, commonly referred to as corn lily or Californian false hellebore, grows in high mountain meadows and produces the steroidal alkaloid cyclopamine, a potent inhibitor of the Hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway. The Hh pathway is a crucial regulator of many fundamental processes during vertebrate embryonic development. However, constitutive activation of the Hh pathway contributes to the progression of various cancers. In the present study, a direct correlation was made between the extraction efficiency for cyclopamine from root and rhizome by eight methods, and the associated biological activity in Shh-Light II cells using the Dual-Glo® Luciferase Assay System. Alkaloid recovery ranged from 0.39 to 8.03 mg/g, with ethanol soak being determined to be the superior method for obtaining biologically active cyclopamine. Acidic ethanol and supercritical extractions yielded degraded or contaminated cyclopamine with lower antagonistic activity towards Hh signaling