Lolines are a group of saturated pyrrolizidine alkaloids that possess broad bioactivity against a wide array of herbivorous insects. However, they do not exhibit toxicity to ruminants such as cattle and sheep. In order to study the direct and potential physiological effects on ruminants and the mechanism of insecticide/insectifuge, the distribution of loline alkaloids in endophyte-infected meadow fescue and the seasonal change of the distribution were analyzed. The crowns, roots and leaves of endophyte-infected meadow fescue at its four different growth periods, i.e., spring, summer, early autumn and late autumn, in New Zealand were colleted. After powdering, organic solvent extraction and purification by column chromatography, all loline alkaloid samples were analyzed by capillary gas chromatography with 4-phenylmorpholine (PM) as an internal standard. The analytic results showed that the loline contents in the roots, crowns and leaves of endophyte-infected meadow fescue vary with seasons. Even within the same season, the distribution of lolines in endophyte-infected meadow fescue varies. During summer, lolines mainly existed in the leaves and roots, but in early autumn, they are produced in the crowns. It was concluded that, lolines were mainly produced in the leaves and roots of endophyte-infected meadow fescue. In gas chromatographic analysis, N-formylloline, the major component of loline alkaloid in the plant, was employed to assay the alkaloids.
