Furoquinoline alkaloid

It is the main alkaloid in the roots of Dictamnus albus and responsible for the mutagenicity of the drug derived from crude extracts.

It is very weak base, shows similar reaction with methyl iodide and dimethyl sulfate or diazomethane, does not form a derivative but go through isomerization to isodictamnine.

Dictamine have linear structure which is confirmed as it forms dictamnic acid by oxidative degradation with potassium permanganate.

[1] Some furoquinoline alkaloids have been found to have in vitro pharmacological properties such as antimicrobial, antiviral, mutagenic and cytotoxic activities.

[7] Furoquinoline alkaloids extracted from Teclea afzelii (Rutaceae) plants, collected at Elounden, centre province of Cameroon, have antiplasmodial activities.