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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.
List of contents
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. 1H-, 13C- and 15N-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.
Summary
One of the most exciting and interesting aspects of the study of natural products is the “field work” involving ethnological and ethnobotanical studies and which, where apposite, have been alluded to in the present treatise
Many texts on alkaloids are limited to chemical aspects, whereas the somewhat unique and therapeutically significant biological activities of the Calabar bean’s alkaloids (particularly l-physostigmine) has led to a detailed and through presentation of these facets in the present treatise
Throughout this present study, along with a detailed account of what has been done, investigations of what remains to be done have been high-lighted and approaches to effecting this are suggested, including the interpretations of already – published data
