A New Submontane Species of Ancistrocladus from Tanzania

Ancistrotanzanine A, the First 5,3‘-Coupled Naphthylisoquinoline Alkaloid, and Two Further, 5,8‘-Linked Related Compounds from the Newly Described SpeciesAncistrocladus tanzaniensis,1

“…A. tanzaniensis was collected in Tanzania in the Uzungwa mountains at 1200 m above sea level, in contrast to all the other Ancistrocladus species, which so far have been found in habitats of less than 800 m altitude . Repeated column chromatography and preparative HPLC of a CH 2 Cl 2 extract of the air-dried and ground leaves of A. tanzaniensis afforded three alkaloids ( 5 − 7 ), the UV spectra of which suggested that they are naphthylisoquinoline alkaloids.…”

“…In this paper, we report on the first phytochemical investigation of the newly described East African Ancistrocladus species A. tanzaniensis, 12 leading to the discovery of a novel 5,3′-coupling type, present in the new alkaloid ancistrotanzanine A (5). In addition, the new ancistrotanzanine B (6) and the known 13 ancistrotectoriline A (7), both 5,8′-coupled, were also isolated.…”

Ancistrotanzanine C and Related 5,1‘- and 7,3‘-Coupled Naphthylisoquinoline Alkaloids fromAncistrocladustanzaniensis

“…The naphthylisoquinoline alkaloids comprise a rapidly growing class of remarkable natural products: structurally, because of the presence of a usually rotationally hindered and thus stereogenic biaryl axis, , biosynthetically, since these are the first acetogenic tetrahydroisoquinoline alkaloids, , and pharmacologically, because of their high antiinfective activities, e.g., against different protozoan pathogens, such as Plasmodium , Leishmania , and Trypanosoma species, − all of which cause severe, widespread tropical diseases . The East African species Ancistrocladus tanzaniensis (Ancistrocladaceae), which has been botanically described only recently, has proven to produce a series of novel bioactive representatives of this interesting class of natural products . Thus, the new alkaloid ancistrotanzanine A ( 1 ) is based on a hitherto unknown 5,3‘-coupling type between the two molecular portions, the naphthalene and the isoquinoline parts, while ancistrotanzanine B ( 2 ) and ancistrotectoriline A ( 3 ), also obtained from the Southeast Asian species A. tectorius , are both 5,8‘-coupled …”

Lukea gen. nov. (Monodoreae-Annonaceae) with two new species of shrub from the forests of the Udzungwas, Tanzania & Kaya Ribe, Kenya

“…The distribution of Lukea, with one species in the Eastern Arc Mts and another in the coastal forests of Kenya is seen in several other genera, such as Ancistrocladus Wall. with A. tanzaniensis Cheek & Frim.-Møll. in the Udzungwas and A. robertsoniorum J.Léonard in the Kenyan coastal forests (Cheek et al 2000, Cheek 2000, also in the genus Afrothismia with A. mhoroana Cheek in the Ulugurus and A. baerae Cheek in Kenyan coastal forests (Cheek 2004a;Cheek 2006;Cheek & Jannerup 2006 (Cheek & Luke 2016;Couch et al 2019). He has also collected and described many other novel Annonaceae from Tanzania and Kenya (see introduction).…”