Artavenustine, a Catecholic Berbine from Artabotrys venustus

The stem bark of Artabottys venustus yielded 0.34% of crude bases, mostly aporphinoids and berbinoids. One of the minor constituents, (-)-artavenustine (12), is new member of the rare class of catecholic isoquinoline alkaloids which are of interest as precursors of novel alkaloid types. Its structure was elucidated by spectroscopic , in particular nOeds and 2-D nmr, and by chemical correlation with xylopinine. Other isolated are nornuciferine, asimilobine, anonaine, norstephalagine, norushinsunine, , lirinidine, (S)-reticuline, norcorydine, discretamine, and 10-0-demethyldiscretine