XVI TIBS - May 1980

Book Reviews

Atractyioside - 'plunderer of life'

Atractyloside, chemistry, biochemistry and toxicology

edited by R. Santi and S. Luciani, Piccin Medical Books, Padova, Italy, 1978. $12.00 (xxii + 136pages)

Atractyloside is the name of a natural com- pound that specifically inhibits the trans- port of the adenine-nucleotides, ADP and ATP, across the membrane of mitochon- dria. It is isolated from the hypogean parts of the thistle Atractylis gummifera (L.). This plant has been known to be toxic since at least 300 BC; extracts of the plant have been used also for therapeutic purposes.

The book compiles the present know- ledge about the occurence of atractyloside, its chemical structure and its mechanism of action. The basic concepts on adenine- nucleotide transport in mitochondria and the work on the isolation of atractyloside- binding proteins are also reviewed. In seven chapters those aspects of the drug are dealt with.

The first chapter (A. R. Contessa and G. Fassina) describes the pharmacognosy of A. gummifera (L.), which is also very useful for those who want to grow the plant themselves. (I know several biochemists who do.) The next two chapters are devoted to the analysis of the chemical structure of atractyloside (F. Piozzi) and of carboxyatractyloside (E. Bombardelli). A clear survey, illustrated with figures of the structures of various derivatives, gives the experimental basis that led to the resolu- tion of the structure of these compounds.

Briefly, a glycoside, the aglucon of which, atractyligenin, is a carboxylated dihydroxy norditerpenoid of (-)kaurene; the sugar moiety (D-glucose) contains two molecules of sulphuric acid and one of isovalerianic acid. Carboxyatractyloside contains an additional carboxylic group on the aglucon.

Atractyloside, in hands of biochemists, has contributed a great deal to the under- standing of the ADP, ATP transport across the mitochondrial membrane. Its highly specific inhibition of the transport made it possible to discriminate between intra- and extramitochondrial processes in which ADP and ATP are involved. The actual mechanism of transport has been investi- gated with the use of atractyloside. This is all the more interesting as bongkrekic acid

appeared to act on the same transport sys- tem inside the mitochondria, in contrast to atractyloside, which acts on the carrier out- side the mitochondria. The work with those two inhibitors led to concepts for ADP, ATP transport that probably can be extrapolated to other transport systems. It is not surprising that various derivatives of atractyloside have been prepared: radio- actively-labelled, arylazido-substituted for photoaffinity labelling, esr-labelled, and succinyl-substituted for use in affinity chromatography. The carrier mechanism and the applications of the derivatives are described in the chapters on the biochemis- try of atractyloside (P. M. Vignais et al. and M. Klingenberg). The different views of the authors with respect to'several details encourage ~urther experiments in this area.

The effects of atractyloside in the whole animal are described next (S. Luciani et

al.), together with studies in several homogenates of organs. The hypothesis that atractyloside inhibits ADP, ATP transport in vivo can account for its overall effects, but not in every detail. It is a pity that this chapter does not contain schema- tic representations of the interaction of atractyioside with metabolism in vivo.

P. Debetto summarizes the plants in which atractyloside-like compounds have been found more recently. Among these is Coffea arabica L. - roasted coffee beans contain at least atractyligenin.

The book opens with some nice repro- ductions of historical reports on A. gum- mifera. It gives a clear review of what can be learnt from toxic plants.

THEO A. OUT

Theo A. Out is at the Central Laboratory o f the Nether- lands Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service, Depart- ment o f immunochemistry, Amsterdam, The Nether- lands.

Well-integrated separation text

High-Performance Liquid Chromatography

edited by J. H. Knox, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh. £5 (viii + 205 pages) ISBN 0 85224 341 3

HPLC, which is best described as High- Performance Liquid Chromatography, has enjoyed a spectacular recent increase in popularity for the separation of a wide range of materials. A new volume devoted to this technique is thus welcome, particu- larly if it adds new insight to a technique which appears deceptively simple, but often requires considerable labor on the part of a researcher to achieve an optimal separation. The book, written by six mem- bers of the Edinburgh University Chemis- try Department, is a well-integrated effort. This cohesion is partly due to the presenta- tion of the material in 1977 as two courses on the theory and practice of liquid chromatography.

The intention of the 200-page book is to combine theoretical treatment of the sub- ject, discussion of equipment and some practical instruction. On the whole, the text meets these goals and the reviewer enjoyed the clearly-written and concise presenta- tion of material. Although, due to its size,

the text certainly does not cover all aspects of the technique in sufficient detail, both the beginner and experienced chromato- grapher will find much in the book that is worthwhile. The balance of material is as follows:

The theoretical aspects are described reasonably well in 12 pages. The various mechanisms of separation are categorized as either adsorption (13pp), reversed phase (10pp), liquid-liquid (7pp) and ion-exchange and ion-pairing (16pp). While much of the former has been described elsewhere, the experimental details (101 pp) comprise the best section of the book and contain much useful information. The illustrative experiments provide four well-detailed practical experiments in the remaining 32 pp.

Since the technology and applications of HPLC are progressing rapidly it is import- ant that the text contains up-to-date refer- ences. In this text, the following references are used (approximate total of 259); pre- 1960-15; 1960-1969-22; 1.970-1975-126; 1976-59; 1977-31; 1978-6.

The elution profiles shown in the text are chosen predominantly from the analytical chemist's traditional domain with phar- maceutical and food products, aromatic