MEETINGS OF THE BIOLOGICAL DIVISION OF THE 



AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, CINCINNATI, 



OHIO, APRIL 8 AND 9, 1914 



Proceedings reported by THE Secretary, 

 ISAAC KING PHELPS 



At the meetings of the Biolog. Div. of the Amer. Chem. Soc, 

 held at Cincinnati on April 8 and 9, 19 14, the papers abstracted 

 below were read and discussed.^ 



Chemical studies upon the genus Zygadenus. Carl L. Als- 

 BERG. (Bur. of Plant Industry, U. S. Dep't of Agric.) A number 

 of species of plants of the genus Zygadenus are regarded as poison- 

 ous. Great confusion from the toxicological Standpoint has ex- 

 isted in this genus because the nomenclature of the genus has not 

 always been clearly understood. Thus the alkaloids of the "vera- 

 trin " group have been misnamed. It is not f ound at all in species 

 of the genus Veratrum. Veratrum contains no veratrin but, as is 

 now well known, is a mixture of quite different alkaloids. The alka- 

 loids of the "veratrin" group are, as is generally known, obtained 

 from sabodilla seeds. These are the seeds of a species of Zyga- 

 denus. Hunt was the first to show that the Zygadenus Venenosus 

 of western U. S. contains the same or similar alkaloids. Slade con- 

 firmed this, and Heyl and his collaborators obtained a crystalline 

 alkaloid, apparently belonging to this group, from Z. intermedius. 



In the investigation herein reported, similar alkaloids were ob- 

 tained in crystallin form from Z. Venenosus, Z. elegans, and Z. 

 coloradensis, all of them very toxic and with similar pharmacolog- 

 ical actions. From a member of a closely related genus, Amian- 

 thium musccctoxicum, a similar active principle was obtained in an 

 impure State. Apparently many of the species of this group of lilies 

 contain " veratrin " alkaloids or alkaloids related to it. 



1 At the general meeting of the Amer. Chem. Soc, on Apr. 7, Prof. L. J. 

 Henderson read one of the four papers constituting that program; its title was 

 The chemical fitness of the world for life. An account of the meetings was pub- 

 lished in Science, 1914, xxxix, p. 951 (June 26). 



444 



