the fluid extract on a full stomach, he experienced a feeling a 
restlessness followed by lassitude, a profuse sweating and an 
increase in amounts of saliva and urine. 
In 1884, Lenardson, a student of Dragendorff working in 
Dorpat (now Tartu in Estonia), discovered an alkaloid in man- 
acd root, the first to be isolated from the root. He named the 
compound manacine, which he characterized as an amor- 
phous, hygroscopic yellow powder with the empirical 
forumula 
C15H23Nq405 and a melting point of 115°. Manacine was sol- 
uble in water and alcohol but insoluble in benzene, ether and 
chloroform. It produced non-crystalline precipitates with sev- 
eral alkaloid precipitation agents. In addition to manacine, 
Lenardson found a fluorescent substance which he thought to 
be gelseminic acid. 
A second alkaloid franciscein was reported from manaca 
root in 1887 by Lascelles-Scott, but this was never substan- 
tiated by isolation and identification of the compound. 
The most complete study on manaca root during this period 
was conducted by Brandl in Germany (Brandl, 1895; Beckurts, 
1895). He summarized Lenardson’s dissertation and presented 
the results of his own detailed chemical and pharmacological 
investigations. 
Brandl confirmed Lenardson’s discovery of manacine but 
claimed a different empirical formula C77H33N 70109 and melt- 
ing point of 125°. From the residue remaining after the alcoholic 
extraction of manacine, Brandl found an additional substance 
which he named manaceine. He characterized this constituent 
as an amorphous, white, highly refractive compound, soluble 
in water but insoluble in ether, chloroform and benzene. 
Brandl gave the empirical formula C,;5H25N 70g for man- 
aceine. When heated with water, manacine splits into man- 
aceine and a resinous, fluorescent substance which he consid- 
ered to be the aglycone esculetin (6, 7-dihydroxycoumarin). 
Although Brandl managed to isolate two alkaloids from the 
root, he never obtained a crystalline compound, nor was he 
able to characterize their structures. 
Schultes (1966) suggested that manacine is an ‘‘atropine- 
like’’ alkaloid. There is in fact no basis for this statement. 
294 
