Cephalotaxus alkaloids

Cephalotaxus alkaloids are natural products characterized by pentacyclic structure.

Japanese plum-yew (Cephalotaxus harringtonia)

The completely enclosed seeds of the Japanese plum-yew (Cephalotaxus harringtonii) are ripe.

Occurrence

These alkaloids are commonly found in the plum yew species (Cephalotaxus), especially in the Japanese plum-yew.

Representative

The most important representative is cephalotaxin. Other notable representatives include harringtonine and homoharringtonine.

• 
  (-)-Cephalotaxin
• 
  (-)-Harringtonine
• 
  (-)-Homoharringtonine

Properties

Harringtonine and homoharringtonine exhibit antitumor activity and act against murine leukemia cells. They serve as protein and DNA biosynthesis inhibitors and are used against acute myelocytoxic leukemia.