Biography
Biography: Fabio Boylan
Abstract
In recent years my research group has focused on alkaloids isolated from Choisya species, plants originally from Mexico that have been collected in Dublin, Ireland. Three species, named Choisya ternata, Choisya Aztec-Pearl and Choisya ternata var. Sundance were evaluated. Both volatile and non-volative alkaloids were investigated. Compounds present in the essential oil extracted from C. ternata, were identified and a new minor compound, named ternanthrin, had its structure established by means of mass spectroscopy confirmed by NMR analysis after its synthesis. Ternanthrin and its synthetic intermediates as well as the essential oil possessed antinociceptive activity in different models. Also ternanthrin and its derivatives were analysed in relation to their central nervous system activity and results indicated that they could act as anxiolytic and antidepressants. They were also investigated as anti ulcer agents to which they showed better results than the current medicines available. In relation to the non-volatile alkaloids, from Choisya ternata, we were able to isolate and identify the structure of a new alkaloid named choisyaternatine, a quinoline alkaloid. Other known quinoline alkaloids were also isolated and identified, tecleamaniensine A, anhydroevoxine, skimmianine, choisyine, isobalfourodine. These alkaloids were quantified in the three species. Studies of antinociceptive, anti-inflammatory, antiplatelet, cytotoxic and antioxidant activity were performed for the different plant species as well as for the isolated alkaloids to try and map their importance within each activity. All in all, we could observe that these compounds possess a high level of pharmacological importance that could allow their exploitation to be applied to different medical conditions.