Abstract
Publisher Summary This chapter discusses studies focusing on Nuphar alkaloids. The genus Nuphar belongs to the family Nymphaeaceae, which contains about one hundred species, the more common being Nuphar luteum Sibth. N.japonicum DC., Nymphaea alba L., Nelumbium speciosum Willd., and Euryale ferox Salisb. Alkaloids were first detected in these plants by Dragendorff, who found them in 1879 in the rhizome of N.luteum . Soon thereafter, Gruning isolated nupharine, an amorphous alkaloid to which he ascribed the formula C 18 H 24 O 2 N 2 . In 1934, Bures and Hoffmann reported nympheine, C 14 H 23 O 2 N from Nymphaea alba . In the 1930s, investigations of Nuphar luteum by Achmatowicz and Mollowna resulted in the isolation of two isomeric alkaloids, α- and β-nupharidine, of the empirical formula C 15 H 23 ON. In this chapter, these novel sulfur alkaloids and their properties are described. Structural studies are discussed that have demonstrated for all the known Nuphar alkaloids either the sesquiterpenoid or the triterpenoid structure incorporating the quinolizidine and furan systems, with the tetrahydrothiophene system in the sulfur-containing alkaloids.
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