Phytochemical investigation of Thermopsis rhombifolia.

摘要

Thermopsis rhombifolia, a perennial plant of the Leguminosae family, can be found in Alberta about 100 km south-east of Edmonton. This plant has been reported to be potentially poisonous to cattle and humans. The active poisonous constituents are suspected to be lupine-type, alkaloids which occur particularly in several Leguminosae genera e.g. Thermopsis lupinoides.;The present phytochemical investigation of the basic fraction of the aerial part of this plant revealed five distinct alkaloids. Three of these alkaloids have been isolated and characterized: (;A simple and effective extraction and isolation technique has been developed for the determination of the alkaloidal constituents in this plant. The separation of the naturally occurring lupine-type alkaloids was performed by normal phase adsorption chromatography on silicic acid mixed with Celite;A high performance liquid chromatographic method was devised for the quantitatitve analysis of the lupine-type alkaloids. This analysis was performed by reversed-phase liquid chromatography on octadecylsilica. The mobile phase was a buffered aqueous solution containing acetonitrile and elution of alkaloids was monitored by UV absorption at 310 nm. The quantification of the lupine-type alkaloids was carried out by an external standard method. The variations in alkaloid content during flowering and seed-growth periods were examined.