DICTIONAIIY OF THE ACTIVE I'RINCII'LES OF PLANTS. 



(/) ACOLYCTINE \. (Aconine ? seo (/))iibove). Bitter, alkaline powder. 

 Soluble leiulily in water, alcohol, and chloroform ; not in ether. 

 Precipitants : 



Alk;[lirie carbonates. 

 Ani'iioiiia, gradually gelatinous. 

 Leail acetate. 



Tannic acid. 

 Gold chloride, yellow. 

 Phosi)ho-raolybdic acid, white. 

 (./■) MYOCTONINE, A. Co;H;,„No08-5H.,0 (Dragendorft'and Spohn) ; amor- 

 jihous, bitter ; dextro-rotatory; M. P. 143°- 144°. Salts amorphous ; very 

 poisonous. 



Soluble in water with difficulty, easily in alcohol, amyl alcohol, chloro- 

 form, benzene, carbon bisulphide. Insoluble (or scarcely sol.) in ether 

 or petroleum ether. Heated with alkali, myoctonine gives lycoctonine, 

 lycoctonic acid, an alkaloid resembling acoljctine, and a fourth substance 

 not further examined. 



Precipitated by most alkaloid reagents. 



Vitali's test (evaporation with nitric acid, then touching with alcoholic 

 potash) gives reddish-brown colour. 



(/,■) ATISINE A. [from A. heterophyllum (Atis root)], a^HjiNO., (Alder 

 Wright), or Cj^H^jN-jO-, (Broughton) ; amorphous, oxidizable on exposure 

 (becoming coloured and resinous) ; M. P. 85°; bitter. non-poisonous. Haloid 

 salts are crystallizable and difficultly soluble ; nitrate, sulphate, acetate, 

 amorphous. 



Soluble in alcohol, ether, and benzene ; scarcely in water. 

 Precipitated by : 



Ammonia, white flocculent. I Mercuric-potassic iodide, white. 

 Tannic acid, yellow to brown. | 

 Colour reactions : 



Concentrated sulphuric acid, yellow->/v.magnificent purple, lasting 

 several days ; momentary violet on addition of a drop of water 

 (Shimoyama) ; or faint violetA/v.red.wbrown (Wasowicz). 

 Concentrated sulphuric acid and sugar, yellow-^reddish'v<-oarmine. 

 Nitric acid, colourless. 

 Hydrochloric acid, colourless. 



Phosphoric acid, colourless, but yellowish-violet on warming. 

 (0 JAPACONITINE A. (from Japanese Aconite root), CosHggN.p.,! (Wright 

 and Luff), or C3.|H4jNU]n=Acouitine (Lubbe). The former regard it as 

 a sesqui-anhydro base formed by condensation of 2(C„Hj-NOjo) with 

 elimination of 'A molecules of water. It bears the closest possible resem- 

 blance to aconitine, and yields on saponification benzoic acid (as does the 



latter), and JAPACONINE, C^uHjiNO,,,, almost indistinguishable from aconioe, 

 the analogous derivative of aconitine. 



[Lubbe believes that Japaconitine and Japaconine are identical re- 

 spectively with Aconitine and Aconine.] 



(w) APO- or ANHYDRO-ALKALOIDS of the Aconite group are formed from 

 the respective bases by the elimination of a molecule of water ; this may 

 be effected by heating to 10U for some hours in a concentrated tartaric 

 acid solution thus : 



Acouitine, C.,„H,5NO,(OH),(CO-OC„H,)-H.,0 = C,,;H3jNO/0-OH 



(COOCuHj) Anhydro or Apo-aconitine. 

 Aconine, C.,„H;,5NO.(()H)4 - H,(> = C.,„H.,5N070(OH), Apo-aconine. 



P.^eudacouitine and Pseudaconine yield parallel compounds, but Japa- 

 conitine being already an anhydro base (see (j) above) does not undergo 

 change during the above treatment. 



There is great similarity in the physiological action of these bases and 

 the respective parent alkaloids. 



(h) ISACONITINE A. (of Dunstan and Harrison, see Chem. Soc. Proc, 

 11 '.I, ISIKi), C.,,Hj-XO,.„ colourless, varnish-like, intensely bitter, without 

 the tiugliug sensation characteristic of Aconitine, much less poisonons 

 than the latter ; lajvo-rotatory [a] D= —28-74". 



Soluble in alcohol and chloroform readily, less easily in ether (by which 

 means it ma}' be separated from Aconitine), slightU in water. 



Forms a substituted compound with gold chloride = C3,Hjj(AuCL)X0].. 

 analogous to the Caft'eine compound described by Dunstan and Shepheard 

 (Chem. Soc. Trans., Feb., lK'j:i). 



§ 4. ACORUS CALAMUS (Sweet Flag) : Acoraceoi-aroidfa: ,- Europe 

 Asia, N. America. Used as tonic and stimulant. The root ; (22 grammes 

 were obtained from 12 kilos). Investigators, H. Thorns and others. 



ACOftIN G., CaijHgoOs (Thoms), amorphous, soft resinous, neutral : bitter 

 and aromatic taste. Yields sugar and calamus oil (in a current of 

 hydrogen, otherwise resinification occurs). See also Acoretin. below. 



Soluble in ether, chloroform, benzene, methyl alcohol, acetone ; with 

 difficulty in alcohol. Insoluble in water. Hydrochloride difficultly 

 soluble in water. 



Precipitants : 

 Tannic acid. 



[Platinum chloride, reduced.] 

 [Gold Chloride, reduced.] 

 Fehling's solution, reduced. 



Phospho-molybdic acid, pp.~»-blue 



from reduction. 

 Mercuric-potassic iodide. 

 Iodine tincture. 



