The Structure of Crotoflorine, an lsoquinolinedienone Alkaloid of Croton sparsiflorus Morung.

Occurrence of crotoflorine, a new phenolic isoquinolinedienone alkaloid has been observed in \(Croton\) \(sparsiflorus\) Moruog. As the base readily darkens in air, the properties and reactions of crotoflorine have been studied with its mono and diacetates for its structure elucidation. From a close inspection of the UV, IR, NMR and Mass spectral data of mono and diacetates of crotoflorine and from the studies of their various transformation reactions crotoftorine has been proved to be a proaporphine base which on acid catalysed transformation followed by basification yields a known aporpbine alkaloid sparsiflorine. The Sign and the position of the circular dichroism bands of crotoftorioe diacetate confirm the configuration of the C-6a H in crotoflorine as \(\alpha\).