Disease relevance of Rauwolfia

• The availability of antihypertensive drugs in the 1950s (rauwolfia preparations, veratrum derivatives, thiocyanates, hydralazine, and the ganglion blockers) and the discovery of more effective agents in the period from the 1960s to the present have dramatically improved the prognosis of hypertensive patients [1].
• CONCLUSIONS: With the exception of diuretics and renal cell carcinoma, the association between antihypertensive drugs and malignancy was either low grade (rauwolfia), uncertain (atenolol), absent (ACE inhibitors), or absent with a yet to be investigated inverse association (calcium antagonists) [2].
• Plasma prolactin levels in women at postmenopausal age with a family history of breast cancer or a prescription for antihypertensive Rauwolfia treatment [3].
• In a study conducted in New Zealand, pindolol compared favorably with drugs previously used for hypertension, (methyldopa, diuretics, rauwolfia, guanethidine, etc.). It proved slightly less effective than methyldopa in a Canadian trial but significantly more effective than this drug in a South African study [4].

High impact information on Rauwolfia

• In addition, there was no significant increase in risk associated with use of either rauwolfia derivatives (OR = 1.2), thiazide preparations (OR = 1.2), or methyldopa (OR = 1.1) [5].
• The enzyme strictosidine synthase (STR1) from the Indian medicinal plant Rauvolfia serpentina is of primary importance for the biosynthetic pathway of the indole alkaloid ajmaline [6].
• In this study we show that endogenous jasmonic acid and its methyl ester accumulate rapidly and transiently after treatment of plant cell suspension cultures of Rauvolfia canescens and Eschscholtzia californica with a yeast elicitor [7].
• The rapid induction of the metal-binding PCs has been observed in cell suspension cultures of Rauvolfia serpentina, in seedlings of Arabidopsis, and in enzyme preparations of Silene vulgaris upon challenge to arsenicals [8].
• The results imply that lithium can induce head twitches in the presence of rauwolfia alkaloids and may exert its effect in part by acting on the serotonergic neuron system [9].

Biological context of Rauwolfia

• The gene for strictosidine synthase (str1), the enzyme which catalyzes the stereospecific condensation of tryptamine and secologanin to form the key indole alkaloid 3 alpha(S)-strictosidine has been isolated from genomic libraries prepared from Rauvolfia serpentina (India) and from Rauvolfia mannii (West Africa) [10].
• The elevated level was not reduced when blood pressure was brought to normotensive level by administration of thiazide or rauwolfia [11].

Anatomical context of Rauwolfia

• A new monoterpenoid indole alkaloid, 3-oxo-rhazinilam (1), was isolated from intergeneric somatic hybrid cell cultures of Rauvolfia serpentina and Rhazya stricta, and the structure was determined by detailed 1D and 2D NMR analysis [12].

Associations of Rauwolfia with chemical compounds

• The enzyme specifically converts 2beta( R)-1,2-dihydrovomilenine through an NADPH-dependent reaction into 17-O-acetylnorajmaline, a close biosynthetic precursor of the antiarrhythmic alkaloid ajmaline from Rauvolfia [13].
• Benzodiazepine agonist-type activity of raubasine, a rauwolfia serpentina alkaloid [14].
• Crystals of VS and selenomethionyl-labelled VS from the medicinal plant Rauvolfia serpentina have been obtained by the hanging-drop technique at 305 K with ammonium sulfate and PEG 400 as precipitants [15].
• Plant cell suspension cultures of Rauvolfia are able to produce a high amount of arbutin by glucosylation of exogenously added hydroquinone [16].
• These included the pyrazolones (phenylbutazone, aminophenazone), chloramphenicol, aminoglycoside antibiotics, and Rauwolfia alkaloids [17].

Gene context of Rauwolfia

• Plant cell suspension cultures of Rauwolfia produce within 1 week approximately 250 nkat/l of raucaffricine-O-beta-D-glucosidase [18].
• Reserpine, a Rauwolfia alkaloid, was shown to increase activity of the hepatic nitrogen metabolizing enzymes xanthine dehydrogenase, purine nucleoside phosphorylase, and tyrosine aminotransferase, when administered orally to young chicks [19].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of Rauwolfia

• 3-oxo-rhazinilam: a new indole alkaloid from Rauvolfia serpentina x Rhazya stricta hybrid plant cell cultures [12].

References