NMR spectroscopic analysis of neferine and isoliensinine.

Neferine and isoliensinine are the two major compositions of the Chinese medicine lotus plumule. They have extensive cardiovascular activity, such as antiarrhythmic, antithrombic and antihypertensive. In order to confirm the structures reported in the literature by explicit 1H and 13C assignments, we used a series of NMR experiments including 1H, 1H-COSY, HSQC and HMBC. The absolute configuration of neferine (C-1 and C-1') was determined as R and S and that of isoliensinine (C-1 and C-1') was determined as R and R. Copyright 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.