Manacine actually shows the opposite effects of atropine 
which inhibits rather than stimulates glandular secretions. At 
the present, the structural identity of manacine remains un- 
known. 
Brandl, following the work of Brewer, conducted phar- 
macological experiments on frogs, rabbits and guinea pigs, 
using the manacine and manaceine of his extractions. He found 
manacine to have an intense action, even in small doses. In 
mammals, it induced strong muscular tremors and epileptiform 
cramps, lowered temperature, followed by death due to re- 
spiratory paralysis. All the glands were strongly stimulated, as 
Brewer had observed earlier. Peristalsis was also increased. 
Glandular stimulation, but not peristalsis, was blocked by 
atropine. Frogs showed a general paralysis after an initial 
period of unrest, followed finally by heart arrest in diastole. 
With manaceine he observed a similar but less intense action. 
Peckolt (1909) repeated some of Brandl’s work on manaca. 
He found two products in the root, manacine and another 
alkaloid which he named brunfelsine, but he offered no further 
characterization of either compound. He stated that the seeds 
of another species, Brunfelsia brasiliensis (Spreng. ) Smith & 
Downs [reported as B. ramosissima (Pohl) Benth.], contain 
1.14% brunfelsine but no manacine. Hoppe (1958) stated that 
the leaves and seeds of this species contain both manacine and 
brunfelsine. In its native Brazil, B. brasiliensis is considered 
poisonous according to data from herbarium specimens (V. 
Assis 142). 
Pammel (1911) listed two alkaloids for manaca root, man- 
acine and mandragorine. **Mandragorine”’ is a name given to 
an alkaloid isolated in 1889 from Mandragora officinarum L. 
This was later shown to be a mixture of I-hyoscyamine, 
1-hyoscine (1-scopolamine) and a new alkaloid known as man- 
dragorine. This compound bears the empirical forumla 
C}5H}9O2N and forms a crystalline aurichloride with a melt- 
ing point of 124-126°. On hydrolysis, it yields tropic acid anda 
base resembling tropine (Henry, 1949; Manske & Holmes, 
1950). There have, however, been no subsequent reports of 
tropane alkaloids in Brunfelsia species. 
More recently, the identity of the crystalline, blue-fluores- 
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