Scientific Journals On Alkaloids

 Alkaloids are a category of present organic compounds that mostly contain basic nitrogen atoms. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Some synthetic compounds of comparable structure can also be termed alkaloids. In addition to carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen, alkaloids can also contain oxygen, sulfur and, more rarely, other elements like chlorine, bromine, and phosphorus. Alkaloids are produced by an outsized sort of organisms including bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals. They can be purified from crude extracts of those organisms by acid-base extraction, or solvent extractions followed by silica-gel chromatography . Alkaloids have a good range of pharmacological activities including antimalarial (e.g. quinine), antiasthma (e.g. ephedrine), anticancer (e.g. homoharringtonine),[8] cholinomimetic (e.g. galantamine), vasodilatory (e.g. vincamine), antiarrhythmic (e.g. quinidine), analgesic (e.g. morphine), antibacterial (e.g. chelerythrine), and antihyperglycemic activities (e.g. piperine). [failed verification] Many have found use in traditional or modern medicine, or as starting points for drug discovery. Other alkaloids possess psychotropic (e.g. psilocin) and stimulant activities (e.g. cocaine, caffeine, nicotine, theobromine), and have been used in entheogenic rituals or as recreational drugs. Alkaloids can be toxic too (e.g. atropine, tubocurarine). Although alkaloids act on a diversity of metabolic systems in humans and other animals, they almost uniformly evoke a bitter taste.