The molecule malabaricane and its derivatives, the malabaricanes, are
triterpene and
triterpenoid compounds found in various organisms. They are named after the rain forest tree ''
Ailanthus malabarica'' (''Ailanthus triphysa''), from which they were first isolated in 1967 by scientists at the
National Chemical Laboratory in
Pune
Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
. Later, great varieties of malabaricanes were discovered in other organisms, mostly in marine sponges such as ''
Rhabdastrella globostellata''.
Isomalabaricanes are malabaricanes in which the three
carbon ring
In organic chemistry, an alicyclic compound contains one or more all-carbon Cyclic compound, rings which may be either Saturated and unsaturated compounds, saturated or unsaturated, but do not have aromaticity, aromatic character. Alicyclic compo ...
s of the molecule are connected in ''
trans−syn−trans'' conformation, as opposed to other malabaricanes, where the rings are connected in ''trans−anti−trans'' conformation. They are of particular research interest because many of them have been reported to show anti-tumour activity in
cell culture
Cell culture or tissue culture is the process by which cell (biology), cells are grown under controlled conditions, generally outside of their natural environment. After cells of interest have been Cell isolation, isolated from living tissue, ...
.
[
]
References
{{Reflist
Triterpenes
Benzindenes