AMINES DERIVED FROM PROTEIN 13 



CH 3 . 



Isoamylamine, > CH . CH 2 . CH 2 . NH 2 . 

 CH/ 



An amylamine has been obtained from putrid yeast (Muller 

 [1857]), from cod liver oil (Gautier and Mourgues [1888]), from 

 putrid horse meat (Barger and Walpole [1909, i]), putrid 

 placenta (Rosenheim [1909]), from Boletus edulis on sterile autolysis 

 (Reuter [1912]), and probably from fresh ergot (Barger and Dale 

 [1909]). 



In all these cases isoamylamine (derived from leucine) was pro- 

 bably mixed with the isomeride 2-methylamino-butane (derived from 

 isoleucine), and possibly with normal amylamine from norleucine. Iso- 

 amylamine is further formed from leucine on rapid heating, and in the 

 dry distillation of bones and horn. Ciamician and Ravenna (quoted 

 by Trier [1912, 3]) found isoamylamine in tobacco. The oxalate of 

 isoamylamine was obtained in an impure form from putrid meat by 

 Abelous, Ribaut, Soulie and Toujan [1906, I, 2]; Abelous and Ribaut 

 [1908] deduced the erroneous formula C 6 H U ON for the base, and 

 were the first to observe its power of raising the blood pressure when 

 injected intravenously. Extracts of putrid meat were shown by Barger 

 and Walpole to owe their pressor action principally to isoamylamine 

 and to p-hydroxy-phenyl-ethylamine. 



Pyrrolidine, C 4 H 9 N. 



This base should result from the amino-acid proline by decarboxy- 

 lation, but has never been isolated as a putrefaction product, probably 

 because putrefactive bacteria rupture the pyrrolidine ring by reduction 

 (see Chapter V). 



Pyrrolidine has, however, been isolated in minute quantity from 

 carrot leaves (Daucus Carotd) by Pictet and Court [1907]. They 

 also found pyrrolidine and N-methylpyrroline in minute quantities in 

 tobacco, and have termed these bases proto-alkaloids. 



Amino-ethyl Disulphide, S 2 (CH 2 . CH 2 . NH^ 



Neuberg and Ascher [1907] obtained this amine in small quantity 

 by the dry distillation of cystine, from which it is derived by loss of 

 carbon dioxide. Ihcpicrate melts at 197. The amine has no pro- 

 nounced physiological activity, and has so far not been obtained by 

 bacterial action. 



