Narciclasine - H-1-nmr and C-13-nmr Data and A New Improved Method of Preparation

Narciclasine (I), a well known, nonbasic metabolite occurring in some Amaryllidaceae species, possesses an interesting antimitotic activity. It is structurally related to lycorine, the main amaryllidaceae alkaloid, and it exhibits a surprisingly higher activity than lycorine and several of its synthetic and natural analogs in the inhibition of ascorbic acid biosynthesis in potato tuber slices. A previous study on lycorine structure-activity relationships showed that narciclasine had a very strong antibiotic activity when assayed on Corynebacterium fascians