Abstract
This chapter discusses the protopine alkaloids. The protopine alkaloids form a natural group which is characterized by the presence of a ten-membered N-hetero-ring containing one carbonyl. That they are to be classed as isoquinoline alkaloids follows not from the actual presence of an isoquinoline nucleus but from the fact that they almost certainly are derived from isoquinolines into which they are reconvertible at least in vitro. Their congeners if any are also isoquinolines, and it is evident that the biosynthetic mechanism which gives rise to them involves intermediates analogous to, if not identical with, those which give rise to genuine isoquinolines. While isoquinolines are elaborated by a number of natural orders, there are only two exceptions to the statement that the protopine bases are found only in the Papaveraceae.
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