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Alkaloids from the bulbs of Lycoris longituba and their neuroprotective and acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activities

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Abstract

Three novel alkaloids (1–3), together with nineteen known ones (4–22), were isolated from the bulbs of Lycoris longituba. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of extensive spectroscopic analyses, which belong to several Amaryllidaceae alkaloid skeletons. Among them, the harmane-type alkaloids (the new compound 1 and the known compounds 5, 6 and 7) were found for the first time from Lycoris genus. The isolates were tested for their neuroprotective activities against CoCl2, H2O2 and Aβ25–35-induced SH-SY5Y cell injuries, and the majority of them exhibited neuroprotective activities of different degrees. The acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitory activities of the isolated alkaloids were also evaluated, while compounds 12, 14–20 and 22 exhibited extremely significant AChE inhibitory activities.

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Acknowledgments

Financial supports from the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China (International Cooperative Project, Grant No. 2010DFA32430) and Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81072547, 31270394 and 30873361) are gratefully acknowledged.

Conflict of interest

All the authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Pharmacy, Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Hangkong Road 13, Wuhan, 430030, People’s Republic of China

    Yun-Yun Zhu, Xue Li, Heng-Yi Yu, Peng Zhang, Hui-Fang Pi & Han-Li Ruan

  2. Department of Biochemistry, Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Hangkong Road 13, Wuhan, 430030, People’s Republic of China

    Yu-Fang Xiong

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  1. Yun-Yun Zhu
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Correspondence to Han-Li Ruan.

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Zhu, YY., Li, X., Yu, HY. et al. Alkaloids from the bulbs of Lycoris longituba and their neuroprotective and acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activities. Arch. Pharm. Res. 38, 604–613 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12272-014-0397-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12272-014-0397-2

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