VERATRUM 83 



cherry-red. Veratrum also contains a bitter glucoside veratra- 

 marin; jervic acid, which is identical with chelidonic acid, and crys- 

 tallizes in silky needles; considerable starch; ash 3 to 4 per cent; 

 and calcium oxalate in the form of raphides. 



Constituents of Veratrum Viride. Green hellebore contains 

 about 0.08 per cent of total alkaloids. Of these about one-half con- 

 sists of cevadine, an exceedingly toxic ether-soluble alkaloid, also 

 found in Sabadilla seeds, which crystallizes in needles and gives a 

 violet color on warming with nitric acid, the solution changing to 

 scarlet-red on boiling. The remainder consists chiefly of the ether- 

 insoluble alkaloids jervine and pseudojervine, both of which are 

 found in Veratrum album; a small quantity of Veratrine, that occurs 

 as an amorphous, resinous mass which is colored yellow with concen- 

 trated sulphuric acid, the solution becoming deep red (thus resembling 

 protoveratrine) ; and veratalbine, an amorphous alkaloid. Vera- 

 troidine is now considered to be a mixture of amorphous bases. 



Allied Plants. The rhizome of Veratrum viridifolium, a plant 

 with greenish flowers growing in the mountainous districts of Europe 

 and Northern Asia, contains jervine and veratroidine. The rhizome 

 of Veratrum nigrum, a plant with purplish-red flowers, indigenous to 

 Middle and Eastern Europe, Siberia, Manchuria and Japan, con- 

 tains jervine. 



Sabadilla seeds are the source of the official veratrine. They 

 are obtained from Schcenocaulon officinale (Fam. Liliacese), a bul- 

 bous plant indigenous to Mexico and the West Indies. The seeds 

 are brownish-black, 5 to 8 mm. long, narrow, angular, flat, beaked 

 and have a very bitter and acrid taste. They are frequently exported 

 from Mexico .in the small trilocular dehiscent capsules, there being 

 3 to 6 seeds in each loculus. They contain about 1 per cent of a mix- 

 ture of alkaloids known as veratrine. This consists of cevadine and 

 veratrine (veratridine), both of which are found in the rhizome of 

 Veratrum viride, and three other alkaloids : cevadilline, sabadine and 

 sabadinine, the latter two being crystalline. 



Death Camas. One or more species of Zygadenus, growing in 

 Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and other Northwestern States, cause 

 considerable loss to the stock men of this region. The entire plant 

 including bulbs, leaves and flowers are eaten, particularly by sheep, 

 and are highly toxic, causing heavy stock losses, particularly among 

 sheep. Slade investigated the bulbs of Zygadenus venonosus and 

 obtained an alkaloid resembling veratralbine. Heyl and others 

 obtained from the leaves of Z. intermedius a crystalline alkaloid, 

 zygadenine, which resembles in its physiological action veratrine. 



