Cultivation of a Duboisia hybrid. Part B. Alkaloid variation in a commercial plantation: Effects of seasonal change, soil fertility, and cytokinins

Hybrid plants of Duboisia myoporoides R. Br. and D. leichhardtii F. Muell., grown in a commercial plantation, were monitored for the major alkaloids, hyoscine and hyoscyamine. In the early months after planting, the hyoscine and hyoscyamine percentages were of the same order of magnitude. Gradually hyoscine became the dominant alkaloid with a maximum of 2.2% in Spring, then decreasing with a minimum in late Autumn. Soil fertilization had no effect on alkaloid yield. After harvesting, the plants were monitored as before on regrowth material. A similar pattern was established in wdiich an increase in hyoscine was accompanied by a decrease in hyoscyamine and vice versa, thus supporting alkaloid interconversion. When plants were sprayed with a commercial seaweed extract, Maxicrop®, there -was an 18% increase in leaf yield and a 16% increase in hyoscine content as compared to that of the controls. There was no significant increase in total alkaloid content

Alkaloids of Duboisia hopwoodii

Leaf and root collections of Duboisia hopwoodii were made from Alice Springs in central and Western Australia. From D. hopwoodii collected at Alice Springs were isolated nornicotine, nicotine, myosmine and N-formylnornicotine; cotinine, N-acetylnornicotine, anabasine, anatabine, anatalline and bipyridyl were detected by GC/MS. Root material contained hyoscyamine, scopolamine, nicotine and nornicotine; N-formylnornicotine was detected by GC/MS. D. hopwoodii from Western Australia yielded nicotine, nornicotine, hyoscyamine and metanicotine. Root material contained nornicotine, hyoseyamine, myosmine and N-formylnornicotine, GC/MS detected cotinine and N-acetylnornicotine

The effect of a seaweed extract on the alkaloid variation in a commercial plantation of a Duboisia hybrid

Duboisia hybrid plants of D. myoporoides R.Br. and D. leichhardtii F. Muell. were sprayed with a dilute solution of Maxicrop®, a commercial aqueous seaweed extract, over a 15 month period. The control plants experienced the usual decline in hyoscine content between May and September. This typical decline in hyoscine did not occur in the treated plants

Nicotelline: A Proposed Biomarker and Environmental Tracer for Particulate Matter Derived from Tobacco Smoke

Particulate matter (PM) derived from tobacco smoke contains numerous toxic substances. Since the PM and gas phase of tobacco smoke may distribute differently in the environment, and substances in them may have different human bioavailability, multiple tracers and biomarkers for tobacco smoke constituents are desirable. Nicotelline is a relatively non-volatile alkaloid present in tobacco smoke, and therefore it has the potential to be a suitable tracer and biomarker for tobacco smoke-derived PM. We describe experiments demonstrating that nicotelline is present almost entirely in the PM, in both freshly generated cigarette smoke and aged cigarette smoke. An excellent correlation between the mass of nicotelline and the mass of the PM in aged cigarette smoke was found. We also describe experiments suggesting that the main source of nicotelline in tobacco smoke is dehydrogenation of another little-studied tobacco alkaloid, anatalline, during the burning process. We show that nicotelline metabolites can be measured in urine of smokers, and that nicotelline can be measured in house dust from homes of smokers and non-smokers. We conclude that nicotelline should be useful as a tracer and biomarker for PM derived from tobacco smoke