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Fractalhead

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Posts posted by Fractalhead

  3. Posted

    Yep, just checked the Dictionary of Natural Products (Chapman and Hall Chemical Database) and Elaeagnus angustifolia has a some interesing b-carbs including tetrahydroharmol and N(2)-methyltetrahydroharmol but I need to track down the original reference to find out yields. E. latifolia occurs in PNG. Interesting.

  4. Posted

    Recently, someone reported to me that they found a reference to the smoking of an Elaeagnus species with tobacco in PNG for narcotic effect. Apparently the reference said the Elaeagnaceae is known to be rich in beta-carbolines. This is obviously very exciting because Australia has at least one native or naturalised Elaeagnus sp.

    E. triflora (syn E. latifolia). This occurs in north QLD near Cairns. I'd really like to stick a blacklight over this thing. Can someone in QLD keep an eye (or blacklight) out for any Elaeagnaceae species. There may well be one in a garden near you since a number of foreign Elaeagnus species are cultivated ornamental plants.

    I'll provide links to photos as soon as i have time.

    cheers,

    Fractal

  6. Posted

    I emailed Daniel and he said he didn't make any images of his plates. However, he said it is easy to find Mitragynine on TLC plates because it fluoresces bright yellow under long wave UV (blacklight).

    He also said:

    "I used silica gel TLC plates and developed them with n-propanol/1.5% NH4OH

    at a 9:2 ratio.

    Sidney Sudberg published some images of his TLC plates in the Entheogen Review (Vol. 12, No. 2, 2003). You should see if you can get a copy. In

    addition to my mobile phase, he also used toluene/ethyl acetate/diethylamine (7:2:1)."

    Has anyone got a copy of this issue of the Entheogen Review? Would be great to have a look.

    Some of those solvent system components may be a bit hard to get for the non-professional but we can no doubt come up with a decent system using more readily available materials... while we still can.

  8. Posted

    One of the beauties of thin layer chromatography is the ease and simplicity of it. Just about anyone can do it with a little instruction. Actually interpreting TLC plates while developing new protocols with new and unknown compounds requires a bit of chemical nouse but once a protocol is optimised, anyone can do it. Not having standards makes things even more confusing and it is easy to make incorrect conclusions from TLC plates if you aren't careful.

    Its not expensive. Each test costs about 50c and most of this is to cover the TLC plate. I'm slowly trying to establish a supply of analytical tools (including TLC plates) to amateur and hobbyist chemists but this will take some time you with some as I'm very busy studying at the moment. Perhaps, someone else can send you some TLC plates. I can probably help with instruction. Torsten might know the solvent system Daniel Siebert used in his TLC analysis of various 'kratom' products. In fact, I should email and ask for a scan of the TLC plates since from these we can determine which spots on our plates correspond to mitragynine by relative Rfs and then we won't even need standards. Would be nice to get to the bottom of this oxidative curiosity...

  10. Posted

    This is a prime example of an application for TLC. If people run their different kratom preparations on TLC plated prior to bioassay, we might be able to correlate the changes in TLC profile with changes in potency and/or qualitative effects. I doubt (m)any humans have tried these compounds in their pure form.

  12. Posted

    Remember: when going Galbulimima hunting to bring a pair of binoculars, some serious tree climbing gear and a VERY keen botantical eye. This is one elusive (huge) little critter... oh and watch out for stinging trees

  16. Posted

    Prof. Peter Houghton is a bit of a legend in the field of Natural products and medicinal plant chemistry. I attended a lecture of his when he recently came out on tour to oz. Has done some high-tech research on Banisteriopsis/harmala alkaloids, Mitragyna, khat and heaps of other funky stuff. I reckon he deserves a pat on the back ;-)

    [ 19. February 2004, 22:15: Message edited by: Fractalhead ]

  17. Posted

    Studies on the Synthesis and Opioid Agonistic Activities of Mitragynine-Related Indole Alkaloids: Discovery of Opioid Agonists

    Structurally Different from Other Opioid Ligands

    Hiromitsu Takayama,*,† Hayato Ishikawa,† Mika Kurihara,† Mariko Kitajima,† Norio Aimi,† Dhavadee Ponglux,‡

    Fumi Koyama,§ Kenjiro Matsumoto,§ Tomoyuki Moriyama,§ Leonard T. Yamamoto,§ Kazuo Watanabe,§

    Toshihiko Murayama,§ and Syunji Horie*,§

    Received December 21, 2001

    Mitragynine (1) is a major alkaloidal component in the Thai traditional medicinal herb,

    Mitragyna speciosa, and has been proven to exhibit analgesic activity mediated by opioid

    receptors. By utilizing this natural product as a lead compound, synthesis of some derivatives,

    evaluations of the structure-activity relationship, and surveys of the intrinsic activities and potencies on opioid receptors were performed with guinea pig ileum. The affinities of some

    compounds for Ì-, ‰-, and -receptors were determined in a receptor binding assay. The essential structural moieties in the Corynanthe type indole alkaloids for inducing the opioid agonistic activity were also clarified. The oxidative derivatives of mitragynine, i.e., mitragynine pseudoindoxyl (2) and 7-hydroxymitragynine (12), were found as opioid agonists with higher potency than morphine in the experiment with guinea pig ileum. In addition, 2 induced an analgesic activity in the tail flick test in mice.

    1949 J. Med. Chem. 2002, 45, 1949-1956

    The prep of mitragynine pseudoindoxyl from mitragynine is relatively simple:

    Treatment of 1 with lead tetraacetate gave the 7-acetoxyindolenine derivative (11) in 50% yield. By alkaline hydrolysis of 11, 7-hydroxy-7H-mitragynine (12), which has been found as a minor constituent in the leaves of M. speciosa,17 was obtained in 95% yield. Treatment of 12 with sodium methoxide in methanol gave the pseudoindoxy derivative (2).

    You chemists out there better hurry up and get your shit together if you want to play with this stuff!

  19. Posted

    I was pleasantly surprised the other day when one of my pachs decided to put out a flower bud. It is still forming but I don't want to miss my opportunity to pollinate the flower because it is rapidly growing. If anyone has some viable pollen of and Trichocereus species available, I'd really like to trade it or buy it or whatever. I could take some pollen from the flower when it opens and pass it on to anyone else in need.

    Cheers,

    Fractal

  20. Posted

    Hi perth ppl,

    I'm hoping someone can point me in the direction of a motherload of Trachelospermum jasminoides somewhere in perth. I'm really looking to harvest the whole thing roots and all but if restrained i will stop before killing the thing. Therefore, i need to be allowed to harvest without upsetting anyone. As an incentive for ppl to come out of the closet: if all goes well, a bit of alkaloid extract says everyones happy

    Similar deal if anyone else can send me a few kg of dry material to work with... particularly root bark.

    Cheers,

    Fractal

  22. Posted

    How may I be of service? So what's my question exactly? Sorry I've been meaning to have a munch on this thread for a few days. It'll require a trip to uni. They are big on plant nitrogen metabolism at my uni. What do you want to know? Not sure what details of the parasitism experiment you are after.

    Is this the general question?:

    What role could amino acid supplements (in the medium) play in helping the little fellas:

    a) take up / transport nitrogen

    OR

    B) synthesise growth hormones

    I'll be in there full time starting monday, so I'd love to help out.

    Now I will begin to waffle on about semi-relevant trains of thought. I haven't seriously looked into this yet so I don't know if there is any evidence to suggest it is true but...

    I've been wondering about (and i'm sure others have) the symbiont issues. Apart from the supply of nutritional molecules, there may signalling/elicitor molecules of symbiont origin normally needed to induce proper regulation of plant genes that are required for the metabolism of the incoming goodies by the plant. Maybe some chitin or something?

    [ 11. February 2004, 10:12: Message edited by: Fractalhead ]

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