When larger quantities of seeds of Rivea corymbosa and 
Ipomoea violacea were available, the indole compounds 
could be obtained in preparative quantities. It was found 
that they were alkaloidal in nature and that they could 
be isolated by the usual methods used for the extraction 
and purification of alkaloids. For this purpose, the finely 
ground seeds were made alkaline with sodium bicarbon- 
ate, then extracted with ethyl acetate. The alkaloids 
were then removed from the extracts, which had been 
concentrated to asmall volume in vacuum, with aqueous 
tataric acid from which they were again shaken with ethy] 
acetate after making the mixture alkaline with a sodium 
bicarbonate solution. From the alkaloid fractions thus 
obtained, the individual components visible in the thin 
layer chromatogram could be separated by fractional 
crystallization, chromatography on aluminum oxide col- 
umns and thin layer plates with aluminum oxide and 
silica gel layers, on a preparative scale. The separated 
compounds were obtained in crystalline form and could 
be identified chemically. For further details, the reader 
is referred to our chemical publications. 1 ™ Only the 
results of the chemical investigations can be summarized 
briefly within the scope of this article. These are given 
in ‘Table I. 
The fact that Ipomoea violacea contains a greater total 
of active principles than does Rivea corymbosa explains 
why the Indians used smaller quantities of badoh negro 
(Ipomoea) than of badoh (Rivea). 
Identification of the individual indole bases showed 
that ergot alkaloids were present. ‘The main component 
of the alkaloid mixture in the Rivea and Ipomoea seeds, 
which corresponds to spot A, is d-lysergic acid amide 
(ergine) (formula TLL), a compound that was first ob- 
tained as a cleavage product upon alkaline hydrolysis of 
ergot alkaloids" and then also by partial synthesis from 
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