Molecular geometry of alkaloids present in seeds of mexican prickly poppy

Abstract

The work is a study of the geometry of the molecules via molecular mechanics of the main alkaloids found in the seeds of Argemone Mexicana Linn, a prickly poppy, which is considered one of the most important species of plants in traditional Mexican and Indian medicine system. The seeds have toxic properties as well as bactericide, hallucinogenic, fungicide, insecticide, in isoquinolines and sanguinarine alkaloids such as berberine. A computational study of the molecular geometry of the molecules through molecular mechanics of the main alkaloids compounds present in plant seeds is described in a computer simulation. The plant has active ingredients compounds: allocryptopine, berberine, chelerythrine, copsitine, dihydrosanguinarine, protopine and sanguinarine. The studied alkaloids form two groups having similar charge distribution among themselves, which have dipole moments of these two times higher than in the other group.