Ipvelutine, 7β-acetoxy-2α-(tigloyloxy)tropane, an unusual tropane alkaloid from Ipomoea velutina R. BR. (Convolvulaceae)

Convolvulaceae provide a rich source of tropane alkaloids, however, 2-substi-tuted tropanes have been described for only few species of this taxon. In this note, 2,7-diesters such as ipvelutine [7β-acetoxy-2α-(tigloyloxy)tropane] isolated from the vegetative parts of the Australian Ipomoea velutina R. BR. are described as a new group of tropane diesters

Synthesis and antiproliferative activity of new tonantzitlolone-derived diterpene derivatives

The synthesis of the diterpene (+)-tonantzitlolone A and a series of derivatives is reported. The study includes the determination of their antiproliferative activities against selected cancer cell lines. © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2016

Enhanced Healthspan in Caenorhabditis elegans Treated With Extracts From the Traditional Chinese Medicine Plants Cuscuta chinensis Lam. and Eucommia ulmoides Oliv.

To uncover potential anti-aging capacities of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans was used to investigate the effects of Eucommia ulmoides and Cuscuta chinensis extracts, selected by screening seven TCM extracts, on different healthspan parameters. Nematodes exposed to E. ulmoides and C. chinensis extracts, starting at the young adult stage, exhibited prolonged lifespan and increased survival after heat stress as well as upon exposure to the pathogenic bacterium Photorhabdus luminescens, whereby the survival benefits were monitored after stress initiation at different adult stages. However, only C. chinensis had the ability to enhance physical fitness: the swimming behavior and the pharyngeal pumping rate of C. elegans were improved at day 7 and especially at day 12 of adulthood. Finally, monitoring the red fluorescence of aged worms revealed that only C. chinensis extracts caused suppression of intestinal autofluorescence, a known marker of aging. The results underline the different modes of action of the tested plants extracts. E. ulmoides improved specifically the physiological fitness by increasing the survival probability of C. elegans after stress, while C. chinensis seems to be an overall healthspan enhancer, reflected in the suppressed autofluorescence, with beneficial effects on physical as well as physiological fitness. The C. chinensis effects may be hormetic: this is supported by increased gene expression of hsp-16.1 and by trend, also of hsp-12.6.Peer Reviewe

Applying ILP to Diterpene Structure Elucidation from &sup1³C NMR Spectra

. We present a novel application of ILP to the problem of diterpene structure elucidation from 13 C NMR spectra. Diterpenes are organic compounds of low molecular weight that are based on a skeleton of 20 carbon atoms. They are of significant chemical and commercial interest because of their use as lead compounds in the search for new pharmaceutical effectors. The structure elucidation of diterpenes based on 13 C NMR spectra is usually done manually by human experts with specialized background knowledge on peak patterns and chemical structures. In the process, each of the 20 skeletal atoms is assigned an atom number that corresponds to its proper place in the skeleton and the diterpene is classified into one of the possible skeleton types. We address the problem of learning classification rules from a database of peak patterns for diterpenes with known structure. Recently, propositional learning was successfully applied to learn classification rules from spectra with assigned atom ..