ALKALOIDS OF THE PAPAVERACEAE .93. ON THE NATURE OF THE SO-CALLED METHOXYCHELIDONINE

The so-called mcthoxychelidonine, an alkaloid isolated in 1924 from Ch elidonium majus L. (Papaveraceae), is not an individual compound, but a mixture of three related alkaloids (+)-chelamine (III), (+)-homochel idonine (V) and (+)-chelamidine (IV) as it was deduced from high resol ution mass spectral, thin-layer chromatographic and high-performance l iquid chromatographic (HPLC) analyses of the authentic Gadamer's sampl e. The content of III, V and IV in ''methoxychelidonine'' found by HPL C technique was 67, 28, and 5 wt.%, respectively.