Spontaneous formation of nitrarine and polycyclic skeletons related to Nitraria indolic alkaloids under non-enzymic conditions

Abstract

Mixtures of tryptamine and reactive C5 units, presumably derived from lysine in nature, were studied to ascertain the spontaneous formation of the complex polycyclic alkaloid nitrarine. Several indolic compounds tracing the unified metabolism within the Nitraria genus were also characterized.

Keywords: alkaloids; biomimetic synthesis; cascade reactions; nitraria; nitrarine.