Alkaloids: Chemical and Biological Perspectives

Volume 7 of Alkaloids: Chemical and Biological Perspectives appears under the aegis of a new publisher: the distinguished firm of Springer- Verlag New York, Inc. This volume presents three timely reviews on alkaloids: Chapter 1 reviews the homoerythrina and related alkaloids. a group of compounds occurring in seventeen species that are native to countries bordering the western Pacific. Since the last review in 1981, the number of these alkaloids has doubled. Chapter 2 is a comprehensive review of the carbon-13 NMR spectros- copy of steroidal alkaloids. Because more than 350 plant species have yielded steroidal alkaloids and these alkaloids exhibit a wide spectrum of biological activities, including teratogenicity, this catalog of spectral and physical data should prove very useful to workers in this field. Chapter 3 presents a detailed review of proton and carbon-I3 NMR shift assignments and physical constants of norditerpenoid alkaloids. This chap- ter is an extensive supplement to the review that appeared in Volume 2 of this series. In addition to the catalog of spectral and physical data, this chapter includes tables of proton and carbon shift assignments, a table of the occurrence of alkaloids in plant species, an index of al1 X-ray crystal structure determinations of norditerpenoid alkaloids, and tables containing molecular formulas versus calculated high-resolution mass values and calculated high-resolution mass values versus molecular formulas of nor- diterpenoid alkaloids. Each chapter in this volume has been reviewed by an expert in the field. Indexes for both subjects and organisms are provided.