rauvolfia peguana/nicotine

Rauvolfia serpentina, family Apocynaceae, is widely cultivated in India and adjoining countries for the production of roots used in several herbal formulations (1). Severe mosaic and stunting of the whole plant was observed on R. serpentina growing in experimental plots of NBRI, Lucknow, in 2006.

The gene for strictosidine synthase (str1), the enzyme which catalyzes the stereospecific condensation of tryptamine and secologanin to form the key indole alkaloid 3 alpha(S)-strictosidine has been isolated from genomic libraries prepared from Rauvolfia serpentina (India) and from Rauvolfia mannii

Acetylajmalan esterase (AAE) plays an essential role in the late stage of ajmaline biosynthesis. Based on the partial peptide sequences of AAE isolated and purified from Rauvolfia cell suspensions, a full-length AAE cDNA clone was isolated. The amino acid sequence of AAE has the highest level of