On the Nature of the So-Called Methoxychelidonine

Abstract

The so-called methoxychelidonine, an alkaloid isolated in 1924 from Chelidonium majus L. (Papaveraceae), is not an individual compound, but a mixture of three related alkaloids (+)-chelamine (III), (+)-homochelidonine (V) and (+)-chelamidine (IV) as it was deduced from high resolution mass spectral, thin-layer chromatographic and high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) analyses of the authentic Gadamer's sample. The content of III, V and IV in "methoxychelidonine" found by HPLC technique was 67, 28, and 5 wt.%, respectively.