Editing Reserpine (section)

==Biosynthetic pathway==
Reserpine is one of dozens of [[indole]] [[alkaloid]]s isolated from the plant ''[[Rauvolfia serpentina]]''.<ref name="indole-alkaloid">[http://waynesword.palomar.edu/chemid2.htm#indole "Indole Alkaloids"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110902070453/http://waynesword.palomar.edu/chemid2.htm#indole |date=2011-09-02 }} ''Major Types Of Chemical Compounds In Plants & Animals Part II: Phenolic Compounds, Glycosides & Alkaloids.'' Wayne's Word: An On-Line Textbook of Natural History. 2005.</ref> In the ''Rauvolfia'' plant, tryptophan is the starting material in the biosynthetic pathway of reserpine, and is converted to tryptamine by tryptophan decarboxylase enzyme. Tryptamine is combined with secologanin in the presence of strictosidine synthetase enzyme and yields strictosidine. Various enzymatic conversion reactions lead to the synthesis of reserpine from strictosidine.<ref>Ramawat et al, 1999.{{cite book| vauthors = Ramawat KG, Sharma R, Suri SS |title=Medicinal Plants in Biotechnology- Secondary metabolites 2nd edition 2007 |  veditors = Ramawat KG, Merillon JM |publisher=Oxford and IBH, India|pages=66–367|isbn=978-1-57808-428-9|date=2007-01-01 }}</ref>