[Antiamebic properties of some derivatives of ailantone and quassin].

Owing to its high toxicity, ailanthone, one of the most potent in vivo amoebicidal drugs of natural origin, cannot be safely employed in clinical trials. With the aim of obtaining a compound with a better therapeutic index and of studying possible relationships between biological activity and chemical structure, many derivatives of ailanthone and of the chemically related, although biologically inactive, quassin have been prepared and tested.