Alkaloids are a class of naturally occurring organic compounds that mostly contain basic nitrogen atoms, and mainly produced by plant. A large amount of research have found that alkaloids have a wide range of pharmacological activities including antimalarial (e.g. quinine), antiasthma, anticancer (e.g. homoharringtonine), cholinomimetic (e.g. galantamine), vasodilatory (e.g. vincamine), antiarrhythmic (e.g. quinidine), analgesic (e.g. morphine), antibacterial (e.g. chelerythrine), and antihyperglycemic activities (e.g. piperine). Many have found use in traditional or modern medicine, or as starting points for drug discovery. As research in alkaloids advances, alkaloids would play an important and visible role in modern drug development and provide a continuing source of novel drug leads.

TargetMol’s Alkaloid Natural Product Library carefully collects 500 alkaloids derived from plants, including Aconite, Periwinkle, Camptotheca acuminate, Belladonna, Coptis chinensis, etc. They have anticancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidative, and neuroprotective effects. For example, vinca alkaloids obtained from Madagascar periwinkle plant are important for being cancer fighters and are the second-most-used class of cancer drugs and will stay among the original caner therapies. Lycorine, one of the main alkaloids of the Amaryllidaceae family, was found to be responsible for the pronounced antiviral and antibacterial activity of the crude extracts from the roots and leaves of Clivia miniata Regel. Tetrahydropalmatine, an isoquinoline alkaloid that is considered the active ingredient of Corydalis yanhusuo, has significant analgesic effects.