tions seem to have been conducted by Pouquet (1914), 
Alvarado (1918) and Miranda (1918). Miranda has 
summed up the previous investigations. He himself 
identified, by the methods available at the time, atropine 
in Latua, using various precipitating reactions, confirm- 
ing also the parasympatholytic action of the extract on 
pupillary size of animals and man. Miranda presumably 
based his original assumption that atropine represents 
the main constituent on botanical rather than chemical 
proofs. His finding was confirmed in 1959 by Silva and 
Mancinelli who isolated 0.015% of atropine from the 
leaves. Not until 1962 were Bodendorff and Kummer 
able to identify another alkaloid in the plant: viz. scopola- 
mine. The amount of alkaloids calculated on the whole 
plant was scopolamine 0.08% and atropine (or hyoscya- 
mine) 0.18%. The highest content of alkaloids was found 
in the leaves. The stem contained less, and the seeds 
lacked alkaloids. This is in contrast to our own findings. 
The present examination demonstrates the highest 
amount of alkaloids in the stem, while the seeds and 
leaves contained less but a still substantial amount of 
atropine and scopolamine. 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
Field studies pertinent to this work were conducted 
by Plowman in Chile in 1969. We are most grateful to 
all the persons there who facilitated these studies with 
generous hospitality and assistance. We would like to 
thank the following persons: Dr. Carlos Munoz and Dra. 
Mélica Munoz (Museo Nacional de Historia Natural), 
Dr. Hugo Gunckel, Dra. Eugenia Navas, and Dr. Jorge 
Mardones (Universidad de Chile), Ing. Patricio Montal- 
do and Mario Bernales (Universidad Austral), Padre 
Leandro Serna (Rio Frio), and Claudio Urrea (Temuco). 
We also express our thanks to Rolando oro (Santiago) 
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