aspidosperma

English

Noun

aspidosperma (countable and uncountable, plural aspidospermas)

1. A tree in the genus Aspidosperma.
   • 1946, Notes on Forty-two Secondary Hardwood Timbers of British Honduras, page 69:

     Aspidospermas have good bending qualities.

2. A group of indole alkaloids that are found in these trees, noted for a tetracyclic framework and modifications in the carbon skeleton that arise during their biosynthesis via the mevalonate pathway.
   • 1970, National Institutes of Health (U.S.). Division of Research Grants, Research Grants Index - Part 1, page 30:

     CA - 08869-04 Heterolytic fragmentation as applied to the synthesis of aspidosperma alkaloids

   • 1990, Song Liu, Syntheses of Aspidosperma Alkaloids, page 2:

     The Aspidosperma alkaloids are the largest group of indole alkaloids.

   • 2006, John Romeo, Integrative Plant Biochemistry, page 12:

     The structurally more complex aspidosperma, strychnos, and iboga alkaloids may each be derived from the corynanthe alkaloids.

   • 2012, K. Kubitzki, Flowering Plants, page 68:

     Fortunately, however, this profusion of skeleta can be grouped into so-called borynanthe, aspidosperma, and iboga types (Geissman & Crout 1969), according to the disposition of C-atoms in the mevalonate moiety, which may have preserved the original arrangement (corynanthe) or suffered two kinds of rearrangement (aspidosperma, iboga).