Chemical and Biological Aspects of Montanine-Type Alkaloids Isolated from Plants of the Amaryllidaceae Family
Darja Koutová,
Negar Maafi,
Radim Havelek,
Lubomír Opletal,
Gerald Blunden,
Martina Řezáčová,
Lucie Cahlíková
Affiliations
Darja Koutová
Department of Medical Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Králové, Charles University, Šimkova 870, 500 03 Hradec Králové, Czech Republic
Negar Maafi
ADINACO Research Group, Department of Pharmaceutical Botany, Faculty of Pharmacy, Charles University, Heyrovského 1203, 500 05 Hradec Králové, Czech Republic
Radim Havelek
Department of Medical Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Králové, Charles University, Šimkova 870, 500 03 Hradec Králové, Czech Republic
Lubomír Opletal
ADINACO Research Group, Department of Pharmaceutical Botany, Faculty of Pharmacy, Charles University, Heyrovského 1203, 500 05 Hradec Králové, Czech Republic
Gerald Blunden
School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, Hampshire P01 2DT, UK
Martina Řezáčová
Department of Medical Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Králové, Charles University, Šimkova 870, 500 03 Hradec Králové, Czech Republic
Lucie Cahlíková
ADINACO Research Group, Department of Pharmaceutical Botany, Faculty of Pharmacy, Charles University, Heyrovského 1203, 500 05 Hradec Králové, Czech Republic
Plants of the Amaryllidaceae family are promising therapeutic tools for human diseases and have been used as alternative medicines. The specific secondary metabolites of this plant family, called Amaryllidaceae alkaloids (AA), have attracted considerable attention due to their interesting pharmacological activities. One of them, galantamine, is already used in the therapy of Alzheimer’s disease as a long acting, selective, reversible inhibitor of acetylcholinesterase. One group of AA is the montanine-type, such as montanine, pancracine and others, which share a 5,11-methanomorphanthridine core. So far, only 14 montanine-type alkaloids have been isolated. Compared with other structural-types of AA, montanine-type alkaloids are predominantly present in plants in low concentrations, but some of them display promising biological properties, especially in vitro cytotoxic activity against different cancerous cell lines. The present review aims to summarize comprehensively the research that has been published on the Amaryllidaceae alkaloids of montanine-type.
