The Isolation and Structure of Hyderabadine , a New Indole Alkaloid from

Ervatamia coronaria (Apocynaceae) is a glabrous, evergreen tree commonly grown in the gardens of West Pakistan. Various parts of the plant are used in the indigenous system of medicine for the treatment of ophthalmia, for application on wounds and inflammed parts of the body, as anthelmintic etc. A number of indole alkaloids have previously been reported from the leaves, stem bark and roots of the plant [1-8]. The crude alkaloids obtained from the ethanolic extract of the fresh leaves of the plant were subjected to careful column chromatography on silica gel. Elution was carried out with increasing polarities of petroleum-ether (40-60), chloroform and methanol. The fraction obtained on elution with chloroform and 95% chloroform-methanol afforded a mixture of alkaloids which were further purified by preparative t . l .c . to afford a new alkaloid, "Hyderabadine" as a whitish amorphous material. The compound afforded typically indolic UV spectrum showing absorption maxima at 284 nm and 229 nm and minimum at 250 nm. The IR spectrum (chloroform), afforded peaks at 3300, (indole N-H) , 2920, 2850 (C-H) cm-1, but did not show any peaks in the carbonyl region.