Alkaloid Biosynthesis

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Abstract
In this short review, an attempt was made to catalog most of the diverse reactions which are involved in the formation of alkaloids. Some have suggested that alkaloids are the products of nonenzymatic reactions. However, since the majority of alkaloids are optically active this seems to be highly unlikely. It may be that some steps in the formation of an alkaloid occur without enzymes, but key steps are almost certainly enzyme controlled. Many of the reactions which have been discussed are still hypothetical and work at the enzymatic level will be required to establish their validity. There are now about 4000 different alkaloids and new ones are being discovered at a rapid rate. It would seem to be an almost impossible task to isolate and to characterize all the enzymes responsible for alkaloid formation.

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