The Calabar Bean and its Alkaloids
Description
Investigations into Calabar beans (the dried ripe seeds of Physostigma venenosum ) and their alkaloidal components compose a classical scientific journey throughout some one-and-a-half centuries and not only represent a fascinating aspect of the history of medicine but which is, moreover, still ongoing at the forefront of chemical and medical discovery. Those in particular involving its major such component, l -physostigmine, have led to an understanding of some of the fundamental mechanisms occurring in physiology, pharmacology and biochemistry and, either actually or potentially (by providing a template and thereby acting as a "lead compound") have provided a useful treatment for a variety of neurological disorders associated with irregularities in cholinergic transmission in which augmentation of cholinergic activity has proved to be beneficial.
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Chronology.- Abbreviations.- Preface and acknowledgements.- 1. Introduction.- 2. l -Physostigmine (eserine).- 3. l -Physovenine.- 4. l -Eseramine.- 5. l -N (8) -Norphysostigmine.- 6. l -Geneserine.- 7. 1 H-, 13 C- and 15 N-Nuclear magnetic resonance spectra of the alkaloids of the Calabar bean.- 8. Other alkaloids of, as yet, unknown structures that have been isolated, or allegedly so, from the Calabar bean.- 9. Non-alkaloidal components of the Calabar bean.- 10. Biological activities of the alkaloids of the Calabar bean.- 11. Notes.- 12. References.- 13. Index.