Lin G David, Vishwakarma Pinky, Smith Paul N, Li Rachel W
Research School of Chemistry, The Australian National University, Acton 2601, Australia.
School of Medicine and Psychology, The Australian National University, Acton 2601, Australia.
Plants (Basel). 2025 Jun 24;14(13):1935. doi: 10.3390/plants14131935.
The distribution of alkaloids, with a focus on their chemodiversity, has been reported previously, but not at a genera-wide diversity level. This review provides a comprehensive survey of the occurrence of alkaloids across the genera of the family. This survey is taxonomically guided by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Taxonomy Browser, with targeted keyword searches conducted in the Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) SciFinder-n and PubMed. The family comprises over 1214 species across three subfamilies: (1 genus, 5 species), (3 genera plus 11 subgenera, 617 species), and (58 genera plus 13 subgenera, 592 species). alkaloids have been identified exclusively in 36 of the 58 genera and 6 of the 13 subgenera within the subfamily. To date, more than 600 alkaloids have been isolated, predominantly from this subfamily-hence the designation " alkaloids". These alkaloids display a wide spectrum of biological activities, including acetylcholinesterase inhibition, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antimicrobial, antidiabetic, and anticancer effects. A notable example is galanthamine (also known as galantamine), an FDA-approved drug marketed under the brand names Reminyl™ (Janssen Research Foundation, Beerse, Belgium, 2001) and Razadyne™ (Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research, New Brunswick, NJ, USA, 2004) for the treatment of mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease, due to its potent acetylcholinesterase-inhibitory activity. Galanthamine has been isolated from species belonging to the genera , , , , , , , , , , , and . Lycorine is another widely distributed alkaloid found across multiple genera, and it has been extensively studied for its diverse bioactivities. Given the remarkable chemical diversity and bioactivity of alkaloids, along with the many underexplored genera and species, further research into species and their alkaloids is strongly warranted to support the discovery and development of novel therapeutic agents.
此前已有关于生物碱分布的报道，重点是其化学多样性，但未达到全属多样性水平。本综述全面调查了该科各属中生物碱的存在情况。此次调查在分类学上以美国国立生物技术信息中心（NCBI）分类浏览器为指导，并在化学文摘服务社（CAS）的SciFinder-n和PubMed中进行了有针对性的关键词搜索。该科包括三个亚科的1214多种物种：（1属，5种）、（3属加11亚属，617种）和（58属加13亚属，592种）。生物碱仅在亚科内的58个属中的36个属以及13个亚属中的6个亚属中被鉴定出来。迄今为止，已分离出600多种生物碱，主要来自该亚科，因此有了“生物碱”这一名称。这些生物碱具有广泛的生物活性，包括乙酰胆碱酯酶抑制、抗炎、抗氧化、抗菌、抗糖尿病和抗癌作用。一个显著的例子是加兰他敏（也称为雪花莲胺碱），它是一种经美国食品药品监督管理局（FDA）批准的药物，以Reminyl™（比利时贝尔瑟的杨森研究基金会，2001年）和Razadyne™（美国新泽西州新不伦瑞克的强生制药研究公司，2004年）为商品名销售，用于治疗轻度至中度阿尔茨海默病，因其具有强大的乙酰胆碱酯酶抑制活性。加兰他敏已从属于、、、、、、、、、、和属的物种中分离出来。石蒜碱是另一种广泛分布于多个属的生物碱，因其多样的生物活性而受到广泛研究。鉴于生物碱具有显著的化学多样性和生物活性，以及许多未被充分探索的属和物种，因此非常有必要对物种及其生物碱进行进一步研究，以支持新型治疗药物的发现和开发。
