Psychoactive natural products play an important role in the discovery and development of new drugs for the treatment of central nervous system (CNS) disorders. Our studies are focusing on identification of plant metabolites responsible for CNS activity and designing new ligands with high affinity to CNS receptors. Salvinorin A, the most potent naturally occurring hallucinogen isolated from the...
Abuse of unregulated substances by young adults has been a great concern of the US and international community. The active component of Salvia divinorum , salvinorin A ( 1 ) has a potent affinity to kappa opioid receptor in CNS. We studied the biosynthesis of this diterpenoid through the isolation of RNA and construction of cDNA library. Sequencing of the genetic material resulted in building...