Davey M W, Persiau G, De Bruyn A, Van Damme J, Bauw G, Van Montagu M
Department of Genetics, Flanders Institute for Biotechnology (VIB), Universiteit Gent, Belgium.
Anal Biochem. 1998 Mar 1;257(1):80-8. doi: 10.1006/abio.1997.2544.
The pyrrolophenanthridine alkaloid lycorine has frequently been used as a specific inhibitor to help elucidate the function of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) in a wide range of biological processes. It was recently reported that this function can be exercised by inhibiting the activity of L-galactono-1,4-lactone dehydrogenase, the terminal enzyme of ascorbic acid biosynthesis, although working with the purified enzyme, we have been unable to repeat this result. Here, we present a procedure for the purification and analysis of lycorine by high-performance liquid chromatography from two Crinum species and describe for the first time a method that allows the simultaneous analysis of ascorbic acid and lycorine in tissue extracts of Crinum asiaticum by micellar electrokinetic chromatography.
