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SCIENTIFIC AND APPLIED PHARMACOGNOSY 



ever, easily decomposed, acquiring a yellow color and a disagreeable 

 odor. On treating atropine with nitric acid and potassium hydrate 

 a violet color is produced. On hydrolysis atropine yields tropin and 

 tropic acid. Upon heating atropine with nitric acid so as to cause 

 the loss of a molecule of water the alkaloid apoatropine (atrogamine 

 or anhydro-atropine) is formed, which has been isolated from bella- 

 donna root and which does not possess any mydriatic properties. 



FIG. 249. Belladonna root: S, parenchyma cells containing starch; CA, cells 

 containing sphenoidal microcrystals of calcium oxalate; K, cork; T, frag- 

 ments of tracheae having annular markings or simple pores; P, parenchyma; 

 F, wood fibers with narrow oblique pores. 



On heating apoatropine with hydrochloric acid or upon simply heat- 

 ing it for some time alone the base belladonnine (oxyatropine) is 

 formed. 1 



The amount of alkaloids varies in different parts of the plant and 

 has been given as follows: Roots, 0.4 per cent; stems, 0.04 per cent; 



1 Charles O. Lee. Micro-chemistry of the Alkaloids of Datura. Jour. A. 

 Ph. A., 1918, 7, p. 504. 



