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Updated: Nov 15, 2025

Author Spotlight: Discovering New Alkaloids in Plants with Advanced Mass Spectrometry Techniques
Published on: March 8, 2024
Structure Elucidation and Cholinesterase Inhibition Activity of Two New Minor Amaryllidaceae Alkaloids
Jana Maříková1, Abdullah Al Mamun2, Latifah Al Shammari2
1Department of Bioorganic and Organic Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Charles University, Heyrovskeho 1203, 500 05 Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic.
Abstract:
Two new minor Amaryllidaceae alkaloids were isolated from Hippeastrum × hybridum cv. Ferrari and Narcissus pseudonarcissus cv. Carlton. The chemical structures were identified by various spectroscopic (one- and two-dimensional (1D and 2D) NMR, circular dichroism (CD), high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) and by comparison with literature data of similar compounds. Both isolated alkaloids were screened for their human acetylcholinesterase (hAChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (hBuChE) inhibition activity. One of the new compounds, a heterodimer alkaloid of narcikachnine-type, named narciabduliine (2), showed balanced inhibition potency for both studied enzymes, with IC50 values of 3.29 ± 0.73 µM for hAChE and 3.44 ± 0.02 µM for hBuChE. The accommodation of 2 into the active sites of respective enzymes was predicted using molecular modeling simulation.
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