Alkaloids in Isatis indigotica and their chemotaxonomic significance

Isatis indigotica Fort., belongs to the Brassicaceae family and its leaf is an important Chinese traditional folklore medicine. After many years of research, phytochemical investigations on it have led to the identification of 197 alkaloids, which could serve as valuable chemotaxonomic markers for the identification of I. indigotica. We summarize the chemotaxonomic value of alkaloids, and the results showed that I. indigotica is a typical species in the Brassicaceae family. It has some chemotaxonomic relationships with genera of Brassica L., Arabidopsis (DC.) Heynh., Thellungiella O. E. Schulz, Raphanus L., Lepidium L., together with families of Acanthaceae, Apocynaceae, Nitrariaceae, Orchidaceae and Orchidoideae.