Fig. 2.

Chemistry of lycorine. A. Synthesis of lycorine. Lycorine and lycorine like Amaryllidaceae alkaloids are generated from a common precursor norbelladine. Norbelladine undergoes analogs possessing of the −OH group of A-ring and ortho-para coupling of A and C-ring to produce lycorine. B. Structure-activity relationship of lycorine. The anticancer property of lycorine is largely depended on its structure. The red shades indicate the parts that lycorine requires absolutely to exert its activity. The green shades mean that these part can be changed with chemical modification while the yellow shades represent the part that can be replaced with only a few suitable groups.