Three New C20-Diterpenoid Alkaloids from Aconitum tanguticum var. trichocarpum.

Continuous investigations on the whole herbs of Aconitum tanguticum var. trichocarpum led to the isolation of three new C20-diterpenoid alkaloids trichocarpisines A-C (1-3). Their structures were elucidated on the basis of extensive interpretation of the spectroscopic data.

Further Studies on Structure-Cardiac Activity Relationships of Diterpenoid Alkaloids.

The cardiac effect of thirty-eight diterpenoid alkaloids was evaluated on the isolated bullfrog heart model. Among them, twelve compounds exhibited appreciable cardiac activity, with compounds 3 and 35 being more active than the reference drug lanatoside. The structure-cardiac activity relationships of the diterpenoid alkaloids were summarized based on our present and previous studies [2]: i) 1α-OMe or 1α-OH, 8-OH, 14-OH, and NH (or NMe) are key structural features important for the cardiac effect of the aconitine-type C19-diterpenoid alkaloids without any esters. C18-diterpenoid alkaloids, lycoctonine-type C19-diterpenoid alkaloids, and the veatchine- and denudatine-type C20-diterpenoid alkaloids did not show any cardiac activity; ii) the presence of 3α-OH is beneficial to the cardiac activity; iii) the effect on the cardiac action of 6α-OMe, 13-OH, 15α-OH, and 16-demethoxy or a double bond between C-15 and C-16 depends on the substituent pattern on the nitrogen atom.

Chemiluminescence screening assay for diethylstilbestrol in meat.

A simple, rapid, and sensitive flow injection method with chemiluminescence detection was developed for the screening of meat samples containing diethylstilbestrol, based on the enhancement by diethylstilbestrol of the cerium(IV)-rhodamine 6G chemiluminescence system in sulfuric acid medium. Under the optimal conditions, the chemiluminescence intensity was linear for the diethylstilbestrol concentration in four types of meat (chicken, beef, mutton, and pork) matrix, with the linear ranges of CL detection more than three orders of magnitude and the detection limits (3σ) in the range 0.75-1.12pg/mL. The relative standard deviations for intra-day and inter-day precision were less than 3.0%. The proposed method was found to be highly reliable for screening purpose and successfully applied to the screening of diethylstilbestrol residue in four types of meat samples, with the good quantitative recoveries for the different concentration levels varied from 93.1% to 104.5%. The mechanism of this chemiluminescence reaction has also been proposed.