I am sure that I am not the only one to notices that the alkaloids in
tabernanthe iboga (tabernanthine, ibogaine, etc...) and voacanga
africans (voacangine, voacangamine etc...) have a striking resemblance
to the alkaloids in the madagascar periwinkle -vinca minor and major-
(vinblastine, vincristine, vincamine, etc...) This last set of
alkaloids are powerful antineoplastics. Which of course begs the
question, "Are the whole plants or the individual alkaloids cytotoxic
to dividing cells?". Apparently to some degree the pharmacology flows
the opposite direction (whole plant extracts of the perwinkle have
hallucinogenic effects) but apparently the cytotoxicity is bad enough
that even traditional populations will rarely if ever use it. Being
that we know that antimitogens are highly carcinogenic as well as
acutely sickening this raises serious safety conserns beyond the acute
toxicity. I have looked around but not seen this question addressed.
Does anybody else know if one or all of tthe following are
antineoplastics?
1) Whole plant TI
2) Whole plant VA
3) Ibogaine
TI, VA, and MP all belong to the apocynacae africans botanical lineage
so their coevolution in this regard should not be surprising. BTW data
from the Ames test would be almost certainly useless because if I
remember right Vinca Alkaloids were not directly mutagenic at the
level of DNA coding but instead interefered with intracellualr
machinery in a way that resulted in chromosomal abberations (which of
course also raises the question the the fertility effects of the
alkaloids. Is this being deliberately ignored to allow clinical trial
to go ahead with another mountain of safety red-tape?
