815 



THE CHEMICAL INVESTIGATION OF SOME POISON- 

 OUS PLANTS IN THE N.O. SOLANACE^. 



Part iii. The Occurrence of Nor-Hvoscyamine in 

 solaydra longiplora. 



By James M. Petrie, D.Sc, F.I.C, Linnean Macleay Fellow 

 OF THE Society in Biochemistry. 



(From the Physiological Laboratory of the Univerfiity of Sydripy.) 



In 1907, an investigation of the constituents of Solaiidra 

 Iceins Hook., (syn. S. longiflora Tussac), a plant belonging to the 

 N.O. Solanaceie, was carried out by the author,* when a new 

 member of the group of midriatic alkaloids was discovered and 

 isolated. The properties of this alkaloid were examined, and 

 shown to differ from those of the solanaceous alkaloids previously 

 known. It was accordingly named, from its source, " solandrine." 



In 1912, Carr and Reynolds! published an account of their 

 investigations of the alkaloids of another plant of the Order 

 Solanaceaj, Scopolia japonica: and although it has been well 

 known for the last thirty years, that this plant contained hyo- 

 scyamine, atropine, and scopolamine, these authors discovered a 

 fourth alkaloid, which they isolated by means of a long and 

 tedious process of fractional crystallisation. Carr and Reynolds 

 named this new alkaloid nor-hyoscyamine, after determining its 

 constitution and its relation to the other alkaloids. In addition, 

 they proved the identity of their nor-hyoscyamine with the 

 pseudo-hyoscyamine, which Merck in 1892 found in Duhoisia 

 myoporoides, which Hesse in 1901 found in Mandragora offici- 

 narum, but which neither of these eminent authorities was 

 able to obtain in a pure state. 



*" Solandrine, a new Midriatic Alkaloid." Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. 

 Wales, 1907, xxxii., 789. 



t Journ. Chem. Soc, ei., 1912, 946. 



