Alkaloids from South African Amaryllidaceae - Part 7 - Bioactive alkaloidsfrom Brunsvigia radulosa

A phytochemical investigation of the bulbs of Brunsvigia radulosa yielded t he new alkaloid 1-O-acetylnorpluviine, together with the known structures 1 -epideacetylbowdensine, crinamine, crinine, hamayne, lycorine, anhydrolycor in-6-one and sternbergine. All structures were established by spectroscopic evidence. Some of the: C-13 assignments which were reported for crinamine and hamayne were corrected by means of 2D NMR techniques. Tn order to provi de a further structure for biological testing, crinamine was converted to a pohaemanthamine. The alkaloids were tested for activity against two strains of cultured Plasmodium falciparum and for cytotoxicity with BL6 mouse mela noma cells. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.