Alkaloids constitute the largest class of plant secondary compounds, occurring in 20 to 30% of perennial herbaceous species in North America. Alkaloid-containing plants are of interest, first because alkaloids often have pronounced physiological reactions when ingested by livestock, and second because alkaloids have distinctive taste characteristics. Thus, alkaloids may kill, injure, or reduce ...

approved: A. Morrie Craig N Bacterial cultures enriched from sheep rumen fluid have demonstrated the ability to detoxify pyrrolizidine alkaloids (seneciphylline and jacobine) in tansy ragwort (Senecio jacobaea). The microbes are difficult to isolate using classical anaerobic techniques, therefore, microbes from two different enrichment cultures demonstrating similar degradation activity were id...

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) are found in various plant genera worldwide. Poisoning by PA-containing plants is usually accidental, by the ingestion of grain inadvertently contaminated with seeds of pyrrolizidine-containing weeds, or the consumption of herbal or bush tea, or when taken as herbal infusions for medicinal purposes. In this paper the toxicity of PA-containing plants, with emphasis ...

M. Wink* Universität München, Pharmazeutische Biologie, Karlstraße 29, D-8000 München 2, Bundesrepublik Deutschland D. Schneider Max-Planck-Institut für Verhaltensphysiologie, D-8131 Seewiesen, Bundesrepublik Deutschland L. Wit te Technische Universität Braunschweig, Institut für Organische Chemie, Hagenring 30, D-3300 Braunschweig, Bundesrepublik Deutschland Z. Naturforsch. 43c, 737-741 (1988)...

Species of several unrelated families within the angiosperms are able to constitutively produce pyrrolizidine alkaloids as a defense against herbivores. In pyrrolizidine alkaloid (PA) biosynthesis, homospermidine synthase (HSS) catalyzes the first specific step. HSS was recruited during angiosperm evolution from deoxyhypusine synthase (DHS), an enzyme involved in the posttranslational activatio...

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids are naturally occurring secondary plant metabolites mainly found in families of Asteraceae, Boraginaceae, and Fabaceae. Chemically, Pas consist a pyrrolizidine core bearing hydroxyl groups, the so-called necine base, mono- or dicarboxylic acids bound to via ester linkages. 1,2-unsaturated PAs hepatotoxic, genotoxic, carcinogenic due highly reactive pyrrolic formed by cyt...

Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids (PAs) are a group of naturally occurring alkaloids that are produced by plants as a defense mechanism against insect herbivores. The analytical methodologies employed for their detection have come a long way since the first analytical experiment and in the last 30 years had an enormous development, both technological and experimental. It is notorious that before the gene...