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News tagged with alkaloids

New way of synthesizing organic chemicals mimics nature

Organic chemists have found a new way of synthesizing multiple complex organic molecules that until now have needed to be synthesized using time-consuming methods. The new strategy, which mimics natural biosynthesis methods, ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Jul 15, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast report

Mice (and possibly humans) make their own morphine

(PhysOrg.com) -- New research has confirmed that mice have the biochemical pathways required to manufacture morphine from intermediates. Morphine is a powerful drug usually derived from the opium poppy, but ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Apr 28, 2010 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (6) | comments 2 | with audio podcast report

Plant researchers locate transporter used for nicotine metabolism

The next time you take aspirin for a headache, thank a willow tree. Salicylic acid, a compound chemically similar to aspirin, is found in willow tree bark and is made by the plant as a chemical defense against pathogens. ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Nov 01, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Compounds from periwinkle plant could become more effective cancer drugs

Humans have long taken advantage of the huge variety of medicinal compounds produced by plants. Now MIT chemists have found a new way to expand plants' pharmaceutical repertoire by genetically engineering ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Nov 03, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Dot Products: Analytical Applications of Enzymatic Growth of Quantum Dots

(PhysOrg.com) -- The search for time and cost effective as well as sensitive methods for bioanalytical assays is currently of great interest. At the center of Biofunctional Nanomaterials in San Sebastian (Spain), ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Jun 16, 2010 | popularity 3.8 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Chemists synthesize fungal compound with anti-cancer activity

(PhysOrg.com) -- Ten years ago, William Fenical of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography isolated from an ocean-living fungus a compound that has since shown the ability to kill cancer cells in the lab. ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Apr 26, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0

Chemists synthesize herbal alkaloid

The club moss Lycopodium serratum is a creeping, flowerless plant used in homeopathic medicine to treat a wide variety of ailments. It contains a potent brew of alkaloids that have attracted considerable scient ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Apr 15, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (5) | comments 0

The Beaver as Chemist: Total Synthesis of Enantiomerically Pure Nupharamine Alkaloids from Castoreum

(PhysOrg.com) -- Castoreum, the dried scent glands of the Canadian beaver, was once one of the most valuable scent components derived from animals. Castoreum contains a complex mixture of substances, including a number of ...

Chemistry /

created Feb 16, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Micro-frog springs toxic surprise

A "robber frog" whose body is just 10 millimetres (three-eighths of an inch) long eats toxic mites and exudes their poison on its skin to deter predators, scientists reported on Wednesday.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Nov 03, 2010 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Study: Grass, fungus combination affects ecology

The popular forage and turf grass called tall fescue covers a vast amount of land in the U.S. -- an area that's estimated to be larger than Virginia and Maryland combined -- and a new study by ecologists at Rice University ...

Biology / Ecology

created Mar 15, 2010 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

A newly discovered chemical weapon in poison frogs' arsenal

New research documents a surprising chemical weapon used by some Amazonian poison frogs. The study identified for the first time a family of poisons never before known to exist in these brightly colored creatures ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Jun 04, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Gene-altering compounds released from forest fires

Scientists in Washington State are reporting the first discovery of potent mutagenic substances in smoke from forest fires that often sweep through huge stands of Ponderosa pine in the western United States ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Apr 29, 2009 | popularity 3 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Scientists make turfgrass safer for animals, deadly for insects

The right combination of compounds produced by a beneficial fungus could lead to grasses that require fewer pesticides and are safer for wildlife and grazing animals, according to Purdue University scientists.

Biology / Ecology

created Sep 06, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Probing the secrets of the ryegrasses

Loline alkaloids protect plants from attack by insects and have other interesting features that have yet to be studied in detail. Chemists from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet in Munich, Germany, have developed a method for ...

Chemistry / Other

created Jun 20, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Doppler Ultrasound Helps Scientists Understand Fescue Toxicosis

(PhysOrg.com) -- Doppler technology -- the very same technology used by meteorologists to track thunderstorms -- is being used by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists to better understand the rate ...

Biology / Other

created Oct 21, 2009 | popularity 3 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Alkaloid

Alkaloids are naturally occurring chemical compounds containing basic nitrogen atoms. The name derives from the word alkaline and was used to describe any nitrogen-containing base. Alkaloids are produced by a large variety of organisms, including bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals and are part of the group of natural products (also called secondary metabolites). Many alkaloids can be purified from crude extracts by acid-base extraction. Many alkaloids are toxic to other organisms. They often have pharmacological effects and are used as medications, as recreational drugs, or in entheogenic rituals. Examples are the local anesthetic and stimulant cocaine, the stimulant caffeine, nicotine, the analgesic morphine, or the antimalarial drug quinine. Some alkaloids have a bitter taste.

For more information about Alkaloid, read the full article at Wikipedia.
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