119 



NOTES OX ALKALOIDS AND OTHER SUBSTANCES 

 THAT HAVE BEEN EXTRACTED FROM FUNGI. 



By Charles G. Stewart, Chemical Laboratory, St. 'Thomas's Hospital. 

 (Read by He.vky T. Wharton, M.A., F.Z.S., &c.) 



The chemistry of Fungi is by no means in a satisfactory state. Many of the 

 existing statements are rendered doubtful by a bad identiRcation of the species. It 

 is also difficult to obtain a sufficient amount of raw material, and its perishable 

 nature mterposes another obstacle. Beyond this, the research its.lf is so diffic.ilt 

 and e.xpensive, and the question of profitable result is so remote to ordinary minds, 

 that few qualified chemists have even ventured upon the task. This paper offers 

 little that is original on the subject. I have only en.le.ivoured to collect together 

 snch facts as were scattered in chemical literature, and to explain them asun- 

 technically as possible, with due regard to exactness and truth. This must be my 

 apology if to some I seem too elementary, and to others too abstruse. 



Assuming that all plants are built up of cells, and that the essential parts of a 

 cell are the cell-ivall and the cell contents (or protoplasm), we may assert that the 

 cell-wall mainly consists of one of the varieties of cellulose, a colourless, tasteless 

 substance insoluble in water, existing in three forms -.-Cdlulose proper, as found in 

 cotton; paracellulose, existing in some roots and the epidermis of leaves; and 

 vietacellulose or fungin, occurring in fungi and lichens. These are distinguished by 

 different solubilities in ammoniated copper solution. 



The cell-wall of fungi consists then of this metacellulose or fungin. They 

 contain no lignin or woody fibre. All varieties of cellulose have the composition 

 6 -^10 O5. or a multiple of it. 



The ceU-contents, on the other hand, are very complex. Of course there is 

 water, varying from 90 per cent., in fleshy species, to 9 per cent, in a woody 

 Polyporus. Also essential to life is some variety of fibrin or albumen ; substances 

 classed together under the name of "albuminoids," and distinguished by containing 

 mtrogen as well as carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, by their complicated constitu" 

 tion, and the ready changes they undergo under the action of vital forces or of 

 putrefaction. As these substances are especially valuable in food, the nutritive 

 value IS m great part indicated by the percentage of nitrogen. This percentage in 

 fungi IS very high, higher indeed in dried Agarics than in peas and beans, the next 

 articles m this respect. As to the special kinds of albuminoids present in fungi 

 this has not been made out, but we know that they closely resemble the varieties 

 found in animal food. 



Mineral Salts, found as "ash " on burning, are also essential in food The 

 cells of fungi contain a large proportion. Analyses by Schlossberger and Dcipping 

 show amounts of nitrogen varying from T2 per cent, in A. (Psalliota) arvemis, to 

 i-2 in CaiUharellus cibarim ; and an " ash," or mineral matter, varying from WS 



