Study on the Alkaloids from Thalictrum fauriei

To explore the biological activities of Thalictrum alkaloids, a study was initiated to investigate the alkaloidal constituents from T. fauriei, a species indigenous to Taiwan. Extensive fractionation of the ethanolic extract provided three known aporphines, (+)-oconovine (Ia), (+)-isocorydine (Ib), and (+)-corydine (Ic) from nonphenolic tertiary base fraction. From quaternary base fraction two new protoberberinium salts, thalifaurine (IIa), dehydrodiscretine (IIb), in addition to magnoflorine (III), were isolated. The structure of both new compounds were confirmed by total syntheses. Fractionation of phenolic bases yielded a dihydromorphinandienone, (-)-ocobotrine (IV), as well as a novel aporphine-pavine dimer, tentatively named EP-10. The structure of EP-10 was established by means of 2D NMR studies. Preliminary study indicated a weak activity of lyzing Hela cells, in vitro, for EP-10.