6,7-DIEPICASTANOSPERMINE, A TETRAHYDROXYINDOLIZIDINE ALKALOID INHIBITOR OF AMYLOGLUCOSIDASE

A tetrahydroxyindolizidine alkaloid, 6,7-diepicastanospermine, was isolated from the seeds of Castanospermum australe by extraction with methanol and purified to homogeneity using ion-exchange, preparative thin-layer, and radial chromatography. A very low yield of a pyrrolidine alkaloid, N-(hydroxyethyl)-2-(hydroxymethyl)-3-hydroxypyrrolidine, was also obtained by analogous methods. The purity of both alkaloids was established by gas chromatography of their trimethylsilyl (TMS) derivatives as better than 99%. The molecular weight of each alkaloid was established as 189 and 161, respectively, by mass spectrometry, and the structure of each was deduced from their H-1 and C-13 NMR spectra. The structure of the pyrrolidine alkaloid is suggestive of a possible biosynthetic route to the polyhydroxyindolizidine and polyhydroxypyrrolizidine alkaloids which co-occur in C australe. 6,7-Diepicastanospermine was found to be a moderately good inhibitor of the fungal alpha-glucosidase, amyloglucosidase (K(i) = 8.4 x 10(-5) M) and a relatively weak inhibitor of beta-glucosidase. It failed to inhibit alpha- or beta-galactosidase, alpha- or beta-mannosidase, or alpha-L-fucosidase. Comparison of its inhibitory activity toward amyloglucosidase with those of its isomers, castanospermine and 6-epicastanospermine, demonstrated that epimerization of a single hydroxyl group can produce significant alteration of such inhibitory properties.