Psychoactive Plant Database - Neuroactive Phytochemical Collection

1. Food Res Int. 2024 Jul;188:114439. doi: 10.1016/j.foodres.2024.114439. Epub
2024  May 6.

Effect of pH and temperature on tropane alkaloids within a processing strategy 
to provide safe infant cereal-based food.

Torrents-Masoliver B(1), Terriente-Palacios C(2), Bover-Cid S(1), Jofré A(1), 
Castellari M(1), Ribas-Agustí A(3).

Author information:
(1)IRTA (Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology), Food Safety and 
Functionality Programme, Finca Camps i Armet s/n, 17200 Monells, Spain.
(2)Present address: Metabolomics Platform, Institute for Mediterranean and 
Subtropical Horticulture "La Mayora", University of Málaga-Spanish National 
Research Council (IHSM UMA-CSIC), Avenue Louis Pasteur 49, 29010, Malaga, Spain.
(3)IRTA (Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology), Food Safety and 
Functionality Programme, Finca Camps i Armet s/n, 17200 Monells, Spain. 
Electronic address: albert.ribas@irta.cat.

Tropane alkaloids (TAs) are secondary metabolites from weeds that can 
contaminate cereals and vegetables during harvest. Due to their toxicity, the 
Regulation (EC) 2023/915 sets maximum levels for atropine and scopolamine in 
cereal-based foods for infants containing millet, sorghum, buckwheat or their 
derived products. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of pH and 
temperature on the stability of TAs, as possible parameters in thermal 
processing to mitigate this chemical hazard in cereal-based infant food. The 
effect of pH (4 and 7) and temperature (80 °C and 100 °C) was assessed in buffer 
solutions. Also, treatment at 180 °C was performed in spiked and naturally 
incurred millet flour to assess the effect of high temperature, simulating 
cooking or drying, on the stability of TAs in the cereal matrix. The fate of 24 
TAs was assessed by UHPLC-MS/MS. TAs showed high thermostability, although it 
was variable depending on the specific compound, pH, temperature and treatment 
time. In buffer solutions, higher degradation was found at 100 °C and pH 7. In 
spiked millet flour at 180 °C for 10 min, scopolamine and atropine contents 
decreased by 25 % and 22 %, similarly to other TAs which also showed a slow 
thermal degradation. Atropine, scopolamine, anisodamine, norscopolamine, scopine 
and scopoline were found in naturally contaminated millet flour. Interestingly, 
naturally incurred atropine was more thermostable than when spiked, showing a 
protective effect of the cereal matrix on TAs degradation. The present results 
highlight the need for an accurate monitorization of TAs in raw materials, as 
this chemical hazard may remain in infant cereal-based food even after intense 
thermal processing.

Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

DOI: 10.1016/j.foodres.2024.114439
PMID: 38823829 [Indexed for MEDLINE]

Conflict of interest statement: Declaration of competing interest The authors 
declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal 
relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this 
paper.


2. J Biomol Struct Dyn. 2024 Jan 29:1-17. doi: 10.1080/07391102.2024.2308756. 
Online ahead of print.

Network pharmacology and molecular dynamic simulation integrated strategy for 
the screening of active components and mechanisms of phytochemicals from Datura 
innoxia on Alzheimer and cognitive decline.

Alamri MA(1), Tahir Ul Qamar M(2).

Author information:
(1)Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, College of Pharmacy, Prince Sattam 
Bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj, Saudi Arabia.
(2)Integrative Omics and Molecular Modeling Laboratory, Department of 
Bioinformatics and Biotechnology, Government College University, Faisalabad, 
Pakistan.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) ranks as the most prevalent neurodegenerative disorder 
with dementia and it accounts for more than 70% of all cases. Despite extensive 
reporting on the experimental investigation of Datura innoxia (DI) and its 
phytochemical components in the treatment of AD, the urgent need for elucidation 
of the principle of multi-mechanism and multi-level treatment of AD remains. In 
this research, molecular docking and network pharmacology were used to evaluate 
active compounds and molecular targets of DI for the treatment of AD. The 
phytochemical compounds of DI were obtained from the Indian Medicinal Plants, 
Phytochemistry, and Therapeutics (Vivek-Ananth, R. P., Mohanraj, K., Sahoo, A. K., & Samal, A. (2023). IMPPAT 2.0: An Enhanced and Expanded Phytochemical Atlas of Indian Medicinal Plants. ACS omega, 8(9), 8827–8845. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.3c00156) as well as the Traditional Chinese 
Medicine System Pharmacology (TCMSP) databases. The screening includes the 28 
most abundant components of DI and the Swiss Target Prediction database was used 
to predict targets of these compounds. The GeneCards database was used to 
collect AD-related genes. Both DI and AD targets were imported into a Venn 
diagram, and the 28 overlapped genes were identified as potential DI anti-AD 
targets. The results showed that Dinoxin B, Meteloidine, Scopoline, and Tropic 
acid had no effect on AD-related genes. Furthermore, the GO enrichment analysis 
indicates that DI influences molecular functions and biological processes such 
as learning or memory and modulation of chemical synaptic transmission as well 
as the membrane raft and membrane microdomain. The KEGG pathway analysis 
revealed that the key pathways implicated in DI's anti-AD actions include 
serotonergic synapse, IL-17 signaling pathway, and AGE-RAGE signaling pathway in 
diabetic complications. Based on the STRING and Cytoscape network-analysis 
platforms, the top ten anti-AD core targets include APP, CASP3, IL6, BACE1, 
IL1B, ACE, PSEN1, GAPDH, GSK3B and ACHE. The molecular docking and molecular 
dynamic simulation of the top two molecules against the top three target 
proteins confirmed the strong binding affinity and stability at the docked site. 
Overall, our findings pave the path for further research into the development 
and optimization of potential anti-AD agents from DI.Communicated by Ramaswamy 
H. Sarma.

DOI: 10.1080/07391102.2024.2308756
PMID: 38287491


3. Food Chem (Oxf). 2021 Aug 5;3:100036. doi: 10.1016/j.fochms.2021.100036. 
eCollection 2021 Dec 30.

Analysis on quality differences associated with metabolomics of rambutan during 
different temperature storage.

Deng H(1), Yin Q(2), Lin Y(3), Feng J(3), Chen Z(4), Zhang R(1).

Author information:
(1)Key Laboratory of Tropical Fruit and Vegetable Cold-chain of Hainan Province 
/ Institute of Processing & Design of Agriproducts, Hainan Academy of 
Agricultural Sciences, Haikou 570100, Hainan, China.
(2)Hainan Institute for Food Control, Haikou 570100, Hainan, China.
(3)College of Science, Hainan University, Haikou 570100, Hainan, China.
(4)Key Laboratory of Tropical Fruit Tree Biology of Hainan Province / Institute 
of Tropical Fruit Trees, Hainan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Haikou, China.

This study aimed to understand how temperatures differentially impact the 
crucial quality indices and metabolites in rambutan during storage. Rambutan 
browned quickly at room temperature from 0 d (control). After ten days at 5 ℃, 
browning index and lightness were 4.2% and 147.5%, compared with rambutan stored 
at 1 ℃, which was the best quality achieved. An UPLC-MS/MS was performed to 
uncover the metabolism underlying those quality differences, followed by the 
analysis of KEGG pathways. Results showed that 276 differentially expressed 
metabolites (DEMs) screened were enriched in 18 KEGG pathways. The pathways 
related to carbohydrates, aliphatic metabolites, and organic acids were highly 
active in rambutan stored at room temperature, whereas the pathways related to 
amino acids biosynthesis and nucleotides were highly active in rambutan stored 
at 1 ℃, 5 ℃. These findings indicated that increased scopoline was associated 
with serious browning at room temperature. L-leucine and L-isoleucine both 
increased in response to low temperature and reduced browning. Glutathione and 
ascorbate decreased to 4.89% and 4.36%, compared with 0 d (CK) in rambutan with 
severe browning stored at 1 ℃ for ten days. However, no significant changes in 
those two metabolites were observed in rambutan stored at optimal 5 °C for ten 
days. Thus glutathione and ascorbate could be used as potential indicators of 
browning degree. Our study provided a metabolic insight into the role of 
temperature on rambutan quality and browning.

© 2021 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

DOI: 10.1016/j.fochms.2021.100036
PMCID: PMC8991860
PMID: 35415667

Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare that they have no known 
competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared 
to influence the work reported in this paper.


4. J Chromatogr A. 2017 Oct 6;1518:46-58. doi: 10.1016/j.chroma.2017.08.052. Epub
 2017 Aug 25.

Multi-analysis determination of tropane alkaloids in cereals and solanaceaes 
seeds by liquid chromatography coupled to single stage Exactive-Orbitrap.

Marín-Sáez J(1), Romero-González R(1), Garrido Frenich A(2).

Author information:
(1)Department of Chemistry and Physics, Analytical Chemistry Area, University of 
Almería Research Centre for Agricultural Food Biotechnology (BITAL), Agrifood 
Campus of International Excellence ceiA3, Carretera de Sacramento s/n, E-04120 
Almería, Spain.
(2)Department of Chemistry and Physics, Analytical Chemistry Area, University of 
Almería Research Centre for Agricultural Food Biotechnology (BITAL), Agrifood 
Campus of International Excellence ceiA3, Carretera de Sacramento s/n, E-04120 
Almería, Spain. Electronic address: agarrido@ual.es.

Tropane alkaloids are a wide group of substances that comprises more than 200 
compounds occurring especially in the Solanaceae family. The main aim of this 
study is the development of a method for the analysis of the principal tropane 
alkaloids as atropine, scopolamine, anisodamine, tropane, tropine, littorine, 
homatropine, apoatropine, aposcopolamine, scopoline, tropinone, physoperuvine, 
pseudotropine and cuscohygrine in cereals and related matrices. For that, a 
simple solid-liquid extraction was optimized and a liquid chromatographic method 
coupled to a single stage Exactive-Orbitrap was developed. The method was 
validated obtaining recoveries in the range of 60-109% (except for some 
compounds in soy), precision values (expressed as relative standard deviation) 
lower than 20% and detection and quantification limits equal to or lower than 2 
and 3μg/kg respectively. Finally, the method was applied to the analysis of 
different types of samples as buckwheat, linseed, soy and millet, obtaining 
positives for anisodamine, scopolamine, atropine, littorine and tropinone in a 
millet flour sample above the quantification limits, whereas atropine and 
scopolamine were detected in a buckwheat sample, below the quantification limit. 
Contaminated samples with Solanaceaes seeds (Datura Stramonium and Brugmansia 
Arborea) were also analysed, detecting concentrations up to 693μg/kg 
(scopolamine) for contaminated samples with Brugmansia seeds and 1847μg/kg 
(atropine) when samples were contaminated with Stramonium seeds.

Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

DOI: 10.1016/j.chroma.2017.08.052
PMID: 28870544 [Indexed for MEDLINE]


5. Chemphyschem. 2016 Oct 5;17(19):3030-3034. doi: 10.1002/cphc.201600368. Epub 
2016 Jul 28.

Scopine Isolated in the Gas Phase.

Écija P(1), Vallejo-López M(1), Uriarte I(1), Basterretxea FJ(2), Lesarri A(3), 
Fernández JA(1), Cocinero EJ(4).

Author information:
(1)Departamento de Química Física, Facultad de Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad 
del País Vasco (UPV/EHU), Apartado 644, 48080, Bilbao, Spain.
(2)Departamento de Química Física, Facultad de Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad 
del País Vasco (UPV/EHU), Apartado 644, 48080, Bilbao, Spain. 
franciscojose.basterretxea@ehu.eus.
(3)Departamento de Química Física y Química Inorgánica, Facultad de Ciencias, 
Universidad de Valladolid, Spain.
(4)Departamento de Química Física, Facultad de Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad 
del País Vasco (UPV/EHU), Apartado 644, 48080, Bilbao, Spain. 
emiliojose.cocinero@ehu.es.

The rotational spectrum of the tropane alkaloid scopine is detected by Fourier 
transform microwave spectroscopy in a pulsed supersonic jet. A nonconventional 
method for bringing the molecules intact into the gas phase is used in which 
scopine syrup is mixed with glycine powder and the solid mixture is vaporized 
with an ultrafast UV laser beam. Laser vaporization prevents the easy 
isomerization to scopoline previously observed with conventional heating 
methods. A single conformer is unambiguously observed in the supersonic jet and 
corresponds to the energetically most stable species according to quantum 
chemical calculations. Rotational and centrifugal distortion constants are 
accurately determined. The spectrum shows fine and hyperfine structure due to 
the hindered rotation of the methyl group and the presence of a quadrupolar 
nucleus (14 N), respectively. This additional information allows the angle of 
N-methyl inversion between the N-CH3 bond and the bicyclic C-N-C plane to be 
determined (131.8-137.8°), as well as the internal rotation barrier of the 
methyl group (6.235(1) kJ mol-1 ).

© 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

DOI: 10.1002/cphc.201600368
PMID: 27338110 [Indexed for MEDLINE]