Consolida ajacis
Consolida ajacis (syn. Consolida ambigua, Delphinium ajacis, Delphinium ambiguum, doubtful knight's spur, rocket larkspur) is an annual flowering plant of the family Ranunculaceae native to Eurasia. It is widespread in other areas, including much of North America, where it was an introduced species. It is frequently grown in gardens as an ornamental for its spikes of blue, pink or white flowers. It may reach a meter in height. Since the aerial parts and seeds of C. ajacis have been found to contain diterpenoid alkaloids (see below), including the highly toxic methyllycaconitine, the plants should be considered as poisonous.
| Consolida ajacis | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Order: | Ranunculales |
| Family: | Ranunculaceae |
| Genus: | Consolida |
| Species: | C. ajacis |
| Binomial name | |
| Consolida ajacis (L.) Schur | |
Chemical constituents
The first alkaloid to be isolated from C. ajacis seeds was ajaconine, reported by Keller and Volker in 1914.[1] Since that time, over thirty other structurally related diterpenoid alkaloids have been reported; these are:[2]
14-acetylbrowniine
14-acetyldelcosine
14-acetyldelectine
13-O-acetylvakhmatine
ajabicine
ajacine
ajacusine
ajadelphine
ajadelphinine
ajadine
ajadinine
ajanine
ambiguine
anthranoyllycoctonine
browniine
14-deacetylajadine
14-deacetylambiguine
delajacine
delajacirine
delajadine
delectine
delphatine
delpheline
delphisine
deltaline
deltatsine
dihydroajaconine
18-methoxygadesine
19-oxoanthranoyllycoctonine
19-oxodelphatine
takaosamine
vakhmatine
References
- O. Keller and O. Volker (1914) Arch. Pharm. 251 207-216.
- V. Venkateswarlu, S. K. Srivastava, B. S. Joshi, H. K. Desai and S. W. Pelletier (1995) J. Nat. Prod. 58 1527-1532.