Brunsvigia radulosa Herb. is a bulbous ethnomedicinal herb, widespread from
the Great Karoo northwards through the grasslands of southern Africa. Earlier
workers have previously identified a total of ten isoquinoline alkaloids from
this taxon, including 1-O-acetylnorpluviine which is only known from B.
radulosa.
The current report investigates the suggestions of earlier workers relating
to the psychoactivity of the bulb constituents, and its usefulness in the traditional
treatment of cancer. The identification of anhydrolycorinium chloride, the
second ever isolation of this compound from a plant, supports earlier observations
for antineoplastic activity of bulb and leaf extracts of B. radulosa in a mouse
P-388 lymphocytic leukaemia system. In the current study, 1-O-acetyllcorine
was also isolated from the bulbs.


South African Journal of Botany 2002, 68: 86–89