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Sacrelegion

what is/are the active chemicals in Leonotis nepetifolia ?

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Leonotis nepetifolia, or lions ear. i tried a google and erowid already, proving elusive. I like to know what im doing to my brain, and what the toxic /buildup effects are. i read on erowid it can be addictive, as addictive as tobacco, but i find that hard to belive

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there is a good chance that nepetifolia is pretty similar in pharmacology to L.leonurus simply due to the similarity in effect. But analyses have not been done. Have a look at the species pages for the info.

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the active compund is : leonurine.

from my expeirence dont worry too much - it does almost nothing,small effects..

anyway to me :)

good luck and try nepetifolia (better)

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Tomer, how do you know it is leonurine?

I have spent at least 3 hours trying to find the active constituent of this plant and did not come up with anything that was not based on misidentification or crappy research. Most ethnobot websites simply copy off each other and in this case the mistake may have actually originated with me because on the old site I had mistakenly assigned this compound to both species. I am pretty certain that there is no analysis of L.nepetifolia.

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where?

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what I wrote here first was crap due to wrong spelling. so I've done another search and got some good results. The active constituents are numerous, but do not appear to include leonurine. I will write this up for the site asap.

thanks Theo!

[ 12. June 2005, 05:45: Message edited by: Torsten ]

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How does one get to the species pages often referenced? I've searched both the store and the forums pages for a link and been unable to find them

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in the store, every genus that has a pic in the listing will also have a good description with pics etc when you click on it. If you go to Leonotis you will see an example. some genera don't have them yet cos I haven't done them yet.

The other place where a lot of info is accumulating is the wiki.

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Leonotis nepetifolia,............ I have this plant growing as a weed in my garden.

what is the latest info on this plant?

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http://www.iamshaman.com/dagga/diterpenoids.htm I answerd my own question.

Structural Studies on Three Plant Diterpenoids from Leonotis nepetaefolia

This paper describes the interesting structural studies on three new diterpenoids (plant products), namely, hydroxy-dialactone nepetaefolinol (9,13-epoxy-6b-hydroxy-8a-labdane-16,15 :19,20-diolactone), dehydrated nepetaefolinol (9,13-epoxylabd-5-ene-16,15:19,20-diolactone) and isomeric

tetrol (15,16-epoxy-labda-13(16),14-diene-6b,9,17,19-tetrol: which is the reduction product of new diterpenoid leonotinin) isolated from Indian herbal plant Leonotis nepetaefolia (collected in the flowering season from Guindy area, Madras), and are found to be the major compounds in their

extractions, so they are expected to possess the interesting pharmacological properties. In all three structures, the fused ring systems adopt distorted chair-chair, distorted chair and intermediate between 1,2-diplanar and half-chair and chair-chair conformations. In compounds 1 and 2, the twisted form of lactone rings are orthogonal to each other and make dihedral angle of 88.4(1) and 87.5(2)° with each other. The primary interaction between the molecules is van der Waal’s in nature.

Keywords: diterpenoid, leonotis nepetaefolia, hypotensive, antimicrobial, phosphodiesterase inhibitors, pharmacological (Received February 2, 2002; Accepted June 6, 2002)

1. Introduction

Recent chemical and biological research has resulted in much evidence concerning the defensive role of natural products. Natural products, the structurally diverse compounds act as growth inhibitors, antifeedants, antimicrobial, deterrents and insecticides. Leonotis nepetaefolia is one of the 41 species of Labiatae spread all over the country. It is used to treat bronchial asthma, diarrhoea, fever, influenza and malaria, and is also an

analgesic. Phytochemical analysis has revealed that L.nepetaefolia contains, amongst many constituents, labdanic acid (BAGHY et al., 1965), the diterpene methoxynepetaefolin (MACHAND, 1973), the terpenic alcohols nepetaefolinol and leonotinine (PURUSHOTHANAN et al., 1974) and a coumarin, characterized as 4,6,7-trimethoxy -5-methylchromen -2-one (PURUSHOTHAMAN et al., 1976). The pharmacological actions of the crude hydroalcoholic extract and stems of tea extracts obtained from Leonotis nepetaefolia may be purported for anti-asthmatic and anti-diarrhoeal properties. Current anti-asthmatic therapy is based mainly on the use of the drugs which act either via stimulation of b2-adrenoceptors, such as terbutaline and salbutamol, or by inhibition of smooth muscle phosphodiesterase, such as thecophylline. It is suggested that the pharmacological effects of the extracts of L. nepetaefolia may result from potentiation of the cAMP system. Considering that the extracts of L. nepetaefolia could potentially exhibit a profile of activity similar to that of b- adrenoceptor agonists and /or phosphodiesterase inhibitors, their effects on tracheal, ileal and uterine smooth muscle, as well as on cardiac muscle were examined (CALIXTO, YUNES and RAE, 1991).

Leonotis nepetaefolia is one of the important Ayurvedic herbal drug known as Grantiparani in Sanskrit. Phytochemical examination of this plant parts yielded different diterpenoids of labdane type. This plant exhibited various biological activities viz. antifungal, anti-malarial, anti-cancer, hypotensive and has attributed to a variety of salutary physiological effects (DAHL and NORMAN, 1970). The essential oil of L.nepetaefolia (Labiate) was tested for its anti-bacterial activity against both Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria and was found to be moderately active. The essential oil was also found to be inhibitory to dermatophytic fungi and suppressive to other aerial fungi. The oil may be quite useful in skin infections due to dermatophytes even with secondary bacterial infections (GOPAL, SARATHA VASANTH and VASUDEVAN, 1994). The plant is reported to be useful in

skin infections and also as a laxative and narcotic. Certain varieites of the leonotis species are referred to as "Wild Dagga" due to their mild narcotic properties. It was originally believed that this was due to an alkaloid called leonurine, but there may be other compounds such as the three diterpenoids isolated from Leonotis nepetaefolia.

A decoction of the leaves is used as tonic and to cure burns. The seeds possess feeble anti-malarial acitivity. The seed extract exhibited toxicity against Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria (GOPAL et al., 1995). Ash from the flowers is treated against burns (Wealth of India, 1962). Many species of the wide-spread family Labiatae have been used in primitive medical treatment of cancer. Thus every component of the plant has useful medicinal properties. Fig.1 shows the chemical diagrams of three diterpenoids..

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darnit,... web restrictions wont allow me to look at the other links on the iamsham site or other sites (get this 'illegal drugs' pop up! - barracuda web filter),... I'm interested to know opinions of members that have looked into this plant a bit deeper.

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Ive got some seedlings of a few Leonotis species for the garden to attract those sunbird looking hover-birds we get up here in the hills. they love the Salvia elegans Ive spread through the garden.

Out of interest to the vaso-active / bloodpressure lowering effects of Leonotis species similar to those of Leonorus cardiaca from people who have experienced them?

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believe it or not, i once got very slightly hooked on that stuff.

i had stopped smoking pot for a long time, and smoked a few wild dagga joints a day, just so i would at least take a break from work.....

and when i stopped smoking it, there was a little bit of discomfort, hehehe.

nice bump, mister b, sigh, misses your old nick...

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uhhh,... my old nick? djindja i think it was? ( djindja = this guy > Diodon hystrix in our local language )

So yes,.. renewed interest becuase it grows in our grden and grows locally. And now since the rainy season is supposed to beging I plan on planting lots of it.

Funny thing is that in the beginning of my entheogen journey I saw this plant in our local herb books, mentioning that it does grow here. (southern carib somewhere). Our island is small and I never came accross it in the beginning,..... but last year we had a really long rain season.... more then I have seen in at least 10 years,... and then they started popping up everywhere.

so I know 2 things now,......it grows here and needs to rain allot for them to start popping up. on average we have 550 mm of rain here. But in really rainy years it's about @ 900 mm.

So it's a just add some water plant! :-) see if I can help myself to a new addiction.

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Just out of interest: (not much point making a new thread)

Has anyone tried using the flowers from the white flowered variety of Leonotis Leonorus - or was it L. nepetifolia? I doubt there would be much difference, but would be nice to know if something unexpected was the truth. :)

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grow it and you'll know it! ;-)

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burned some leonotis nepetifolia incence and I can say that it is an interesting meditative state brought on. Further meditation on this frequency has to be done. Maybe burn 2 incence sticks in the future or make a more powerful xtract. the smell was a little aromatic...... but not strong enough.

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darnit,... web restrictions wont allow me to look at the other links on the iamsham site or other sites (get this 'illegal drugs' pop up! - barracuda web filter),... I'm interested to know opinions of members that have looked into this plant a bit deeper.

 

Try this: http://proxy.org/cgi_proxies.shtml

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sorry, quote button doesn't seem to be working for me.

@bluntmuffin

i've bioassayed the white variety and orange variety side by side a number of times, always fresh handpicked off the plant and then air dried in a cupboard for up to a week.

to me var. alba actually seems moderately weaker than the orange variety. ):

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