Bronchodilating Action of Vasicinone and Related Compounds

Abstract

Amin and Mehta have claimed¹ that vasicinone (I), which they obtained by aerial oxidation in sunlight of crude extracts of Adhatoda vasica or of pure vasicine (II), the shrub's main alkaloid, has a bronchodilating action. They suggested that this property is attributable to the quinazol-4-one ring system for they found it to be common to the parent substance (III) and various simple derivatives². Vasicine, on the other hand, proved to have a bronchoconstricting action, and the bronchodilator effects variously attributed³ to preparations containing it they ascribed to contamination by small amounts of vasicinone.