{"id":4513,"date":"2021-06-06T20:13:15","date_gmt":"2021-06-06T20:13:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enorcerna.com\/wiki\/definition\/alkaloids\/"},"modified":"2021-06-06T20:13:15","modified_gmt":"2021-06-06T20:13:15","slug":"alkaloids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enorcerna.com\/wiki\/definition\/alkaloids\/","title":{"rendered":"alkaloids"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/enorcerna.com\/wiki\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/alcaloide.jpg\" alt=\"Alkaloid\" width=\"200\" height=\"150\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-38161\" align=\"right\"\/>A <strong>alkaloid<\/strong> It is a nitrogen-type organic compound produced by certain plants.  These compounds generate <strong>physiological effects<\/strong> of different kinds, which constitute the basis of <strong>drugs<\/strong> as the <strong>cocaine<\/strong> and the <strong>morphine<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Alkaloids are secondary metabolites of <strong>vegetables<\/strong> that are synthesized by amino acids.  An alkaloid, therefore, is a chemical compound that has nitrogen that comes from the metabolic process of an amino acid.  When its origin is another, it speaks of <strong>pseudoalkaloids<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>By generating effects on the <strong>Central Nervous System<\/strong>, alkaloids can <strong>intoxicate<\/strong> to human beings.  For this reason, since they are present in vegetables, it is possible that poisonings occur accidentally, when a <strong>person<\/strong> eats a food whose properties are unknown.<\/p>\n<p>It is essential to understand that most alkaloids have their origin in the plant kingdom;  so much so that <strong>about 10% of all plant species have alkaloids<\/strong>.  In some cases, these compounds appear in all parts of the plant, as occurs with yew (the scientific name is <em>Taxus bacata<\/em>), a <strong>tree<\/strong> highly appreciated by birds, of which only its aril, the only non-poisonous part, can be used as food.<\/p>\n<p>In other plants, the alkaloids are usually only in some of the following parts, or they are abundant in them in <strong>proportion<\/strong> with the rest:<\/p>\n<p><strong>* leaves<\/strong>: the tea (<em>Camellia sinensis<\/em>) and tobacco (<em>Nicotiana tabacum<\/em>) are just two examples of the many vegetables in which alkaloids are found in greater proportion in the leaves than in the rest of the body;<\/p>\n<p><strong>* the seeds<\/strong>: in this case, some of the <strong>plants<\/strong> that present alkaloids in the seeds are caffeine (<em>Coffea arabica<\/em>) and the strychnine from the vomica nut, a species of large tree that became known in Europe in 1500 and began being used as a poison;<\/p>\n<p><strong>* the roots<\/strong>: in the aconite (<em>Aconitum napellus<\/em>), in the atropine that usually appears in the belladonna (<em>Atropa Belladonna<\/em>) and in the pitolacin that occurs in the carmine grass (<em>Phytolacca americana<\/em>) we can appreciate three cases of plants that have alkaloids in the roots;<\/p>\n<p><strong>* the fruits<\/strong>: finally, the fruits of the aforementioned belladonna, the <strong>berry<\/strong>, and hemlock (<em>Conium maculatum<\/em>) have a good concentration of alkaloids.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/enorcerna.com\/wiki\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Alcaloide.jpg\" alt=\"Alkaloids\" width=\"260\" height=\"200\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-46842\"\/>Before focusing on the possible effects of alkaloids in our body, it is necessary to understand that plants apply them to different <strong>functions<\/strong>, which we can roughly divide into three groups: <strong>defensive<\/strong> (They use these compounds to protect themselves from animal attacks); <strong>hormonal<\/strong> (similar to what happens in animals with adrenaline, for example); <strong>allelopathic<\/strong> (to influence other plants in a positive or negative way, as it suits you).<\/p>\n<p>The alkaloids are <strong>psychoactive<\/strong>: therefore they contribute to alleviating pain and treating mental disorders.  Beyond medicinal use, alkaloids are also used for non-therapeutic purposes, putting the <strong>Health<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>An alkaloid can cause a dependency in the person, which even experiences physical and psychological changes when not consuming it (the so-called syndrome of <strong>abstinence<\/strong>).  In some cases, as with the <strong>cocaine<\/strong>, the <strong>addiction<\/strong> that it generates is very strong and the health effects are very harmful by consumption.  In other products, the effects are minor, as with the <strong>caffeine<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>It is important to note that alkaloids are not harmful or beneficial by themselves, but rather it depends on how they are used.  The <strong>morphine<\/strong>, for example, it is very important to inhibit pain after surgery or while a patient suffers from <strong>Cancer<\/strong>But it can also lead to kidney failure or pancreatitis when abused.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"kk-star-ratings kksr-auto kksr-align-center kksr-valign-bottom\"\n    data-payload='{&quot;align&quot;:&quot;center&quot;,&quot;id&quot;:&quot;4513&quot;,&quot;slug&quot;:&quot;default&quot;,&quot;valign&quot;:&quot;bottom&quot;,&quot;ignore&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;reference&quot;:&quot;auto&quot;,&quot;class&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;count&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;legendonly&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;readonly&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;score&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;starsonly&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;best&quot;:&quot;5&quot;,&quot;gap&quot;:&quot;4&quot;,&quot;greet&quot;:&quot;Rate this post&quot;,&quot;legend&quot;:&quot;0\\\/5 - (0 votes)&quot;,&quot;size&quot;:&quot;24&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;alkaloids&quot;,&quot;width&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;_legend&quot;:&quot;{score}\\\/{best} - ({count} {votes})&quot;,&quot;font_factor&quot;:&quot;1.25&quot;}'>\n            \n<div class=\"kksr-stars\">\n    \n<div class=\"kksr-stars-inactive\">\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" data-star=\"1\" style=\"padding-right: 4px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 24px; height: 24px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" data-star=\"2\" style=\"padding-right: 4px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 24px; height: 24px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" data-star=\"3\" style=\"padding-right: 4px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 24px; height: 24px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" data-star=\"4\" style=\"padding-right: 4px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 24px; height: 24px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" data-star=\"5\" style=\"padding-right: 4px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 24px; height: 24px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n<div class=\"kksr-stars-active\" style=\"width: 0px;\">\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" style=\"padding-right: 4px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 24px; height: 24px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" style=\"padding-right: 4px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 24px; height: 24px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" style=\"padding-right: 4px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 24px; height: 24px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" style=\"padding-right: 4px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 24px; height: 24px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n            <div class=\"kksr-star\" style=\"padding-right: 4px\">\n            \n\n<div class=\"kksr-icon\" style=\"width: 24px; height: 24px;\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n                \n\n<div class=\"kksr-legend\" style=\"font-size: 19.2px;\">\n            <span class=\"kksr-muted\">Rate this post<\/span>\n    <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A alkaloid It is a nitrogen-type organic compound produced by certain plants.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4514,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-definition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/enorcerna.com\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/enorcerna.com\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/enorcerna.com\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enorcerna.com\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enorcerna.com\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/enorcerna.com\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enorcerna.com\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/enorcerna.com\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enorcerna.com\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enorcerna.com\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}