Isolation and NMR Study on Swainsonine from Locoweed, Astragalus strictus

Locoweed is a poisonous plant wildly distributed in most area of the world and can cause livestock poisoning or death with significant economic loss. The principal responsible for its toxicity is indolizidine alkaloid swainsonine, a new potential anticancer and antiviral drug. Astragalus strictus is mainly distributed in Tibet of China and is a serious hazard to the local livestock industry. To analyze its main toxic ingredients and supply more structural information and more accurate data, swainsonine has been isolated from this plant by D101 macroporous resin and the 1H and 13C chemical shifts of the compound has been assigned by 1D-NMR and 2D-NMR techniques. At the same time, complete assignments of swainsonine's 13C spectral signals are reported.