Fabio Boylan
Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
In recent years my research group has focused on alkaloids isolated from Choisya species, plants originally from Mexico that have been collected in Dublin, Ireland. Three species, named Choisya ternata, Choisya Aztec-Pearl and Choisya ternata var. Sundance were evaluated. Both volatile and non-volatile alkaloids were investigated. Compounds present in the essential oil extracted from C. ternata, were identified and a new minor compound, named ternanthrin, had its structure established by means of mass spectroscopy confirmed by NMR analysis after its synthesis. Ternanthrin and its synthetic intermediates as well as the essential oil possessed antinociceptive activity in different models. Also ternanthrin and its derivatives were analyzed in relation to their central nervous system activity and results indicated that they could act as anxiolytic and antidepressants. They were also investigated as anti ulcer agents to whom they showed better results than the current medicines available. In relation to the non-volatile alkaloids, from Choisya ternata, we were able to isolate and identify the structure of a new alkaloid named choisyaternatine, a quinoline alkaloid. Other known quinoline alkaloids were also isolated and identified, tecleamaniensine A, anhydroevoxine, skimmianine, choisyine and isobalfourodine. These alkaloids were quantified in the three species. Studies of antinociceptive, anti-inflammatory, antiplatelet, cytotoxic and antioxidant activity were performed for the different plant species as well as for the isolated alkaloids to try and map their importance within each activity. All in all, we could observe that these compounds possess a high level of pharmacological importance that could allow their exploitation to be applied to different medical conditions.
Fabio Boylan has studied Pharmacy at Rio de Janeiro Federal University, Brazil. From 1996-1998, he was the Lecturer at the Department of Pharmacognosy, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He has stepped up as a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in 1998. In 2006, he started his sabbatical year in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, TCD, where he further served as a Research Coordinator from 2007- 2008 and currently is a full time Lecturer in Pharmacognosy. He acts as an ad hoc Reviewer for the following scientific journals: Brazilian Journal of Pharmacognosy, Brazilian Journal of Medicinal Plants, Brazilian Journal of Microbiology, Brazilian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Phytochemistry, Iheringia Zoologia (Section Botany), Phytotherapy Research, Current Medicinal Chemistry, African Journal of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Email: fabio.boylan@tcd.ie
