NOTE ON THE 

 ALKALOIDS OF SOME EGYPTIAN SOLANACE^E, 



By FKANK HUGHES, F.C.S., 

 CJiemi.it to the Ministry of Agriculture. 



The large and widely distributed natural order of the Solanacea; 

 includes, as is well known, many most important food-plants ; one needs 

 only mention the Potato, Tomato, and Egg Plant. In addition to these, 

 however, we find that some of the closely related species are among 

 the most poisonous plants known, and even some of the .food-plants 

 themselves sometimes contain poisonous substances in those portions 

 of the plant which are not generally used as food. 



The genus Solanum contains several poisonous plants, but it is in 

 the genera Atropa, Datura, Hyoscyamus, and Scopolia that we find the 

 plants which are of the greatest importance in medicine. It is true 

 that some other genera contain alkaloidal substances, but they have 

 not such marked properties as those of the plants above mentioned 

 and find but little application as drugs. 



The well known drug belladonna is obtained as an extract from 

 the plant Atropa belladonna. The alkaloid in this case is almost pure 

 hyoscyamine, with sometimes a small amount of atropine. It may 

 here be pointed out that these two substances have the same chemical 

 composition and appear to be isomeric. Hyoscyamine can readily 

 be converted into atropine, though the reverse process is not at present 

 possible. Hyoscyamine is optically active, rotating the plane of pola- 

 rization to the left, while atropine is optically inactive. The constitu- 

 tion of these bodies has been carefully studied and in some cases their 

 synthesis has been effected. The two alkaloids above mentioned, 

 together with a third, scopolamine, form a distinct class. Their 

 properties are in many ways similar. They all possess a strong 

 mydriatic action, i.e. even in dilute solution they possess the property, 

 when applied to the eye. of causing the dilatation of the pupil. This 

 effect occurs a few minutes after the application and remains for a 



