Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PA’s) are potentially toxic, naturally occurring secondary products typically found in the plant family Heliotropiaceae, order Boraginales. Three closely related annual species of the New World genus Euploca were surveyed: E. convolvulacea, E. racemosa, and E. texana. Whole plants were collected from Texas during the flowering and fruiting season. Previous GC-MS examination of E. racemosa and E. texana revealed similar PA patterns following comparison of their chromatographic retention times and mass spectral data. Structural elucidation utilizing GC-MS identified PA's in the species E. racemosa and texana to be the novel unsaturated PA euplocacine and its acetate derivatives and saturated PA's related to helibracteatine. Previous work on E. convolvulacea (syn: Heiliotropium convolvulaceum) showed that the major compounds were trachelanthamidine and turneforcidine based saturated PA's. Utilizing our expanded GC-MS analytical methodology, including chemical ionization, PA profiles of the three Euploca species will be further investigated.

Structural analysis of pyrrolizidine alkaloids in Euploca convolvulacea, E. racemosa, and E. texana

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