heliotrine and indicine

Two compounds, 9,10-epoxytetrahydroedulan (ET) and viridiflorine beta-lactone (VL), were identified as major components from the hairpencils of field-caught males of a danaid butterfly, Euploea mulciber. By contrast, laboratory-reared males entirely lacked VL, but possessed a significant quantity of ET. Various feeding experiments with larvae and indoor adult males strongly suggested that ET is biosynthesized de novo only after eclosion from nutrients ingested during the larval development. Since VL was suspected to be derived from pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) acquired as an adult, tests for feeding response to and oral administration of four PAs (a 4:1 mixture of intermedine/lycopsamine, heliotrine, monocrotaline, and retronecine) were conducted. When the tarsi or proboscis were stimulated with PA solutions, males showed positive feeding responses (proboscis extension and sucking movements) to intermedine/lycopsamine, heliotrine, and retronecine in decreasing order of responsiveness, thereby providing evidence that male adults are endowed with taste receptor(s) specific to PAs on the legs as well as on the proboscis. Differently from gustatory responsiveness, only males fed with intermedine/lycopsamine produced a significant quantity of VL (ca. 35 microg/male), whereas those that ingested heliotrine or monocrotaline hydrochloride produced traces of VL (<0.18 microg/male). Uptake of retronecine did not lead to VL formation at all. In behavioral bioassays to test the attractivity of PAs to males, all individuals tested were attracted exclusively to intermedine/lycopsamine. This shows that certain PA(s) per se serve as attractant(s) for males in locating PA sources, and further suggests that in the field, males will seek particular PA(s) that are indispensable as precursors for the efficient biosynthesis of VL.

Topics: Animal Communication; Animals; Behavior, Animal; Bodily Secretions; Butterflies; Feeding Behavior; Female; Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; Japan; Male; Monocrotaline; Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids

Rats were injected with the pyrrolizidine alkaloids heliotrine, indicine, or anacrotine, and killed after 20 hr. Alkaloid metabolites conjugated to haemoglobin thiol groups were recovered in the form of pyrrolic monoethyl ethers, by treating blood samples with ethanolic silver nitrate under "buffered" conditions. Chemically prepared putative toxic metabolites of the alkaloids--dehydroheliotrine, dehydroindicine, and dehydroanacrotine--were also allowed to react in vitro with blood and with an immobilized thiol, thiol-Sepharose, and subsequently the S-conjugated pyrroles were again recovered as ethyl ethers. The recovered pyrrolic ethers were identified by comparing them with reference compounds prepared from ethanol and the dehydro-alkaloids, and the structures of the S-bound pyrroles were deduced. Blood from rats given the 9-monoester alkaloids heliotrine or indicine contained pyrrolic residues, S-bound at their 9-position. Anacrotine-treated rats yielded two diastereomeric 7-ethers, showing that dehydrocrotanecine 7-conjugates had been present in the blood. The products from alkaloid-treated rats were identical with those from blood or thiol-Sepharose treated with the corresponding dehydro-alkaloids in vitro. This supported the view that proximal metabolites leading to S-binding in vivo were the dehydro-derivatives of the alkaloids. In each case the thiols were attacked by the most reactive centre of the dehydro-alkaloid: the 9-ester in dehydroheliotrine and dehydroindicine, and the 7-ester in dehydroanacrotine. Accordingly, simple chemical reactions could account for the products formed in vivo.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Topics: Animals; Male; Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids; Rats; Rats, Wistar; Sulfhydryl Compounds