Abstract
Cissampelos capensis, commonly known by the Afrikaans name “dawidjies” or “dawidjieswortel”, is the most important and best known medicinal plant of the family Menispermaceae used by the Khoisan and other rural people in the western region of South Africa. The main alkaloids in the leaves, stems and rhizomes were isolated and identified. Several of the main compounds were previously found in species of the related genus Antizoma and this similarity indicates that the two genera are closely related if not congeneric. Bulbocapnine (an aporphine alkaloid), dicentrine (an aporphine alkaloid) and salutaridine (a morphinane alkaloid) were the main alkaloids in the leaves, while bulbocapnine, cissacapine, cycleanine and insularine (the last three are bisbenzyltetrahydro-isoquinoline alkaloids) are the major compounds in the stems. The rhizome contains mostly bisbenzyltetrahydroisoquinoline alkaloids, with 12-O-methylcurine, cissacapine and cycleanine as the main ones. Alkaloids appear to be quite variable within different plant parts and different provenances, as confirmed by the difference in alkaloid patterns between coastal and inland forms of Cissampelos capensis (the morphinane alkaloid salutaridine, for example, is the major leaf alkaloid along the coast but is practically absent from the inland form of the species). The variety of alkaloids identified may contribute to the medicinal value of this species. The data on alkaloidal variation in the species has potential value and practical applications in chemotaxonomy, toxicology and pharmacognosy.
Highlights
In this paper the presence, identity and variation of the main alkaloids of Cissampelos capensis L.f.(Menispermaceae) are reported for the first time
A further aim was to investigate possible geographical variation in the alkaloids found in different populations as well as possible chemical differences between various plant parts, especially rhizomes – the part that is mainly used in traditional medicine – and leaves, which are reported to be toxic to cattle [1]
In many regions of the world, members of the family are well known for their medicinal uses, which are associated with their rich diversity of isoquinoline alkaloids [2]
Summary
In this paper the presence, identity and variation of the main alkaloids of Cissampelos capensis L.f. It is generally assumed that the activity of the rhizomes is due to alkaloids, but nothing has hitherto been published on the chemical compounds of C. capensis except for brief references to a few of the main compounds [4,5]. These were included in two reference books and were based on our own unpublished data. The first is a book on poisonous plants of South Africa [4] where the presence of glaziovine in leaves and insularine in rhizomes was merely stated but without any reference to supporting data. There are as yet no scientific papers describing any alkaloids from C. capensis
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