Indospicine, a New Hepatotoxic Amino-acid from Indigofera spicata

Indigofera spicata Forsk (previously I. endecaphylla Jacq.) would be a useful tropical pasture legume without its toxic properties (for review, see ref. 1). It has been shown to be hepatotoxic to sheep, cows and rabbits, and has caused abortion in pregnant animals 2 . Hutton et al. 3,4 showed that the leaf and seed were hepatotoxic to rabbits and mice and that β-nitropropionic acid, which occurs only in the leaf, did not account for these liver lesions. Britten et al. 5 found that β-nitropropionic acid or a compound closely associated with it in the leaf was toxic to chicks, which were not affected by the hepatotoxin(s) present in the seed.