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Updated: May 3, 2026

Author Spotlight: Discovering New Alkaloids in Plants with Advanced Mass Spectrometry Techniques
Published on: March 8, 2024
Iteamine, the first alkaloid isolated from Itea virginica L. inflorescence
Benjamin J Ayers1, Jacqueline Hollinshead2, Alexander W Saville1
1Chemistry Research Laboratory, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3TA, UK.
Abstract:
Iteamine, o-aminobenzyl β-D-glucopyranoside, is the first alkaloid to be isolated from Itea virginica. Itea is the sole plant source of D-psicose, a rare sugar likely to be a major dietary supplement. The structure of iteamine was established by NMR and confirmed by total synthesis. Iteamine and its galacto-analog (which was not found in Itea plants) showed no strong inhibition of any of the 15 glycosidases tested; unnatural galacto-iteamine was a weak inhibitor of chicken liver α-N-acetylgalactosaminidase.
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