Collect. Czech. Chem. Commun. 1990, 55, 2840-2873
https://doi.org/10.1135/cccc19902840

Quaternary benzo[c]phenanthridine alkaloids

Jiří Dostála and Milan Potáčekb

a Department of Medical Chemistry and Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, Komenského nam. 2, 662 43 Brno
b Department of Organic Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, 611 37 Brno

Abstract

This review deals with the fully aromatic quaternary benzo[c]phenanthridine alkaloids in several aspects. Firstly nomenclature principles for numbering fused heterocycles are given. Then the richest botanical sources of quaternary benzo[c]phenanthridines are mentioned as well as isolation, separation and determination methods are presented. The emphasis of this survey is focused on chemical reactivity. The main pharmacological effects of quaternary benzo[c]phenanthridine alkaloids are discussed.