The role of putrescine in the synthesis of hyoscyamine

Abstract

A crude enzyme extract was prepd. from tissues of Atropa belladonna. Freshly gathered material was minced with silver sand and pressed out. Glycerol was added to the press juice to make 5% and the press cake extracted with the glycerol soln. The extract was centrifuged for 15 min. (2000 r.p.m.) and the supernatant soln. dialyzed for 12 hrs. at; 2[degree]. The extract was found to bring about the deamination of putrescine in air and in O2 at pH 7.2 and to a lesser degree at pH 6.8. NH3 and an aldehyde were the resultant products. The diamine-oxidase is located chiefly in the root system but was also found in etiolated shoots. Leaf extracts were practically inactive. Putrescine was isolated in small amts. from leaves of Atropa and Datura stramonium. These expts. strengthen the assumption that putrescine is an intermediate in hyoscyamine synthesis. It is considered that putrescine moves downwards from leaves to roots and is deaminated in root tissues with formation of succindialdehyde and/or [gamma]-aminobutyraldehyde. Both these aldehydes have been used in laboratory syntheses of the tropane nucleus, and it is probable that they also play a part in bio-synthesis of the tropane alkaloids.