Joanna Kurek – Studied chemistry at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (Poland) and where she obtained her Ph.D. and is currently working in the Laboratory for Chemistry of Heterocyclic Compounds. Her research interests include organic chemistry and natural compounds. She is particularly interested in alkaloids like colchicine and its derivatives and their biological activities.
"Alkaloids" is intended for by chemistry, biochemistry, pharmacy, and other medical students, biologists, chemists, biochemists, and other professionals involved in the field of alkaloids. All chapters in this book are written by professionals in the areas of alkaloid chemistry, biology, pharmacy, and other interesting applications. The chapters cover interesting and less obvious information about different groups of alkaloids.
Go to the bookPlants produce and store many organic compounds like amino acids, proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and alkaloids, which are usually treated as secondary metabolites. Many alkaloids are biologically active for humans. For thousand years, extracts from plants containing alkaloids had medicinal use as drugs and they owe their powerful effects thanks to presence of alkaloids. Alkaloids have anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, analgesic, local anesthetic, hypnotic, psychotropic, antimitotic, and antitumor activity. Nowadays, alkaloids from plants are still of great interest to organic chemists, pharmacologists, biologists, biochemists, and pharmacists. Plants of Liliaceae family contain colchicine as the main alkaloid, which has cytotoxic activity. Colchicine has limited pharmacological application because of its toxicity, but many derivatives have been synthesized and their cytotoxic activity and tubulin-binding properties have been tested. Many of the synthetic derivatives showed good cytotoxic activity.
Part of the book: Cytotoxicity