Sources
Atractyloside is found in numerous plant species in the daisy family e.g. '' Atractylis gummifera'', '' Callilepis laureola'', '' Xanthium strumarium'', '' Iphiona alsoeri'', '' Pascalia glauca'', '' Wedelia glauca'', and '' Iphiona aucheri'' among others. It is also found in very low concentrations in '' Coffea arabica''. The widespread regions across all of these plants' native areas of growth results in ATR's easy availability worldwide. However the ATR concentration found in plants is dependent upon the species, season, and origin. For example, the ATR content measured in dried Atractlyis gummifera between Sardinia, Italy and Sicily, Italy revealed a higher content in the Sicilian region by nearly a factor of five, and a higher content in colder months across both regions. Additionally, the preparation of plants with atractyloside in some traditional medicines affects the atractyloside content. The preparation technique, such as decoction or infusion, extracts the desired chemical compound, after which the contents could be diluted or concentrated.History
Atractylosides have been used as poisons since at least 100 AD, though it was not isolated and characterized until 1868 by LeFranc, after extracting it from '' Atractylis gummifera''. After high-profile accidental poisonings—children in Italy and Algeria ate parts of the plant in 1955 and 1975, respectively—renewed interest in atractyloside resulted in future research. Historically, the ATR plant sources have been used for numerous reasons: whether for its therapeutic properties, magico-religious purposes, or its toxicity. While its therapeutic uses may be due to the coincidental presence of other compounds, some uses of ATR-containing plants include treating sinusitis, headaches, syphilitic ulcers, and whitening teeth among other applications. Separately, the '' Atractylis gummifera'' is a traditional herb used in North Africa while '' Callilepis laureola'' is well known to the Zulu people in South Africa for both therapeutical applications and its spiritual context to ward away evil spirits. When in high dosages, ATR's toxicity has been utilized for suicide and murder, though there have been no especially high-profile incidents reported, at least somewhat due to difficulties identifying ATR poisoning. More commonly than suicide or murder, ATR is a result of accidental poisoning: livestock grazing can poison animals, while an unintended overdose or exposure of a plant containing ATR can poison humans. Particularly, the '' Atractylis gummifera'' is easily confused with wild artichoke and other vegetables, and its sweet-tasting roots facilitate its consumption.Structure and reactivity
Atractyloside is a hydrophilic glycoside. A modifiedMechanism of action
In biochemical studies ofPoisoning
Symptoms
Consumption of atractyloside (ATR) in plants will oftentimes also contain carboxyatractyloside (CATR), a highly toxic glycoside. Ingestion of ''A. gummifera'', ''C. laureola'', ''Xanthium'', or their extracts, may result in symptoms of gastrointestinal pain, nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting. Also possible isIdentification / Quantification
The detection of herbal toxins has generally caused a diagnostic problem due to wide variety of plants and limited standard screening. For a long time, the identification of ATR poisoning was limited to postmortem analysis of one's kidneys or liver. Subsequent developments made to identify the presence of ATR in bodily fluids (blood or urine) only worked with high concentrations of ATR. Now, more recent research has established the necessary sensitivity and specificity to be applied to forensic toxicology. The development of the below procedure relied on findings from unsuccessful methods of identification, primarily traced to the following literature in which the specificity and sensitivity was improved over time. Due to the limited research on the subject of ATR identification, this literature represents the primary sources to review: * 1999: Established first quantifiable measurement of atractyloside in whole blood with high-performance liquid chromatography- tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS-MS); * 2001: GC-MS method required derivitization to detect atractyloside fragments; * 2004: LC-MS (EI) using Waters Thermabeam detector resulted in complete fragmentation of the molecule; gentler ionization technique ( ESI) was successfully used to detect ATR after chromatographic separation; * 2006: Further development of procedure with ESI, eluent composition, and other experimental conditions, though still lacking specificity for forensic science. The procedure by ''Carlier et al.'' uses high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-HRMS/MS). After the extraction of ATR and CATR from the blood or urine sample, separation was performed by reverse-phase HPLC. The MS detection used a quadrupole-orbitrap high-resolution detector after heated electrospray in negative ionization mode. These extraction techniques yielded 71.1% and 48.3% of ATR and CATR, respectively, in which these results met acceptable international criteria for forensic science: precision (≤15% or ≤20% at the LLOQ) and accuracy (between 80 and 115% or 80-120% at the LLOQ). For reference, additional sources have fully characterized atractyloside in NMR, MS, IR, etc.Lethality
The mean lethal dose in rats ( i.p.) for ATR is 143 mg/kg and for CATR is 2.9 mg/kg. This lethal dose of ATR takes approximately 150–180 minutes after injection until acute tubular necrosis occurred. This lethal dose varies across species and method of exposure. For example, the mean lethal dose of ATR in rats ( s.c.) is 155 mg/kg. Published mean lethal doses of ATR in other species includes 250 mg/kg ( s.c.) for rabbit, 200 mg/kg ( i.p.) for guinea pig, and 15 mg/kg ( i.v.) for dog.See also
* CarboxyatractylosideReferences
{{reflist Poisons Carboxylate esters Diols Carboxylic acids Alkene derivatives Diterpene glycosides Plant toxins ADP/ATP translocase inhibitors Sulfate esters