600 SCIENTIFIC AND APPLIED PHARMACOGNOSY 



Constituents. The alkaloids hyoscyamine and hyoscine (scopola- 

 mine) 0.08 to 0.15 per cent, of which three-fourths is hyoscyamine; 

 an odorous principle in the nature of a butyric ether or butyrin; a 

 glucosidal bitter principle, hyospicrin; potassium nitrate, about 2 

 per cent, and calcium oxalate. 



Hyoscyamine (an isomer of atropine) occurs in colorless, silky 

 needles with an acrid, disagreeable taste, partly soluble in water, 

 soluble in alcohol, and is readily decomposed into atropine. It forms 

 crystalline salts, of which the hydrobromide is official. Hyoscine 

 forms prismatic crystals, which are soluble in water and alcohol, and 

 yields scopoline (oscine) and tropic acid. 



FIG. 261. Flowers of Hyoscyamus pallidus. After Newcomb. 



Newcomb and Hayner obtained 0.156 per cent of alkaloids in 

 the flowering tops of Hyoscyamus niger and 0.13 per cent of alkaloids 

 in H. pallidus (Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1916, 88, p. 1). 



Hyoscyamus Muticus. The leaves and flowering tops of Hyos- 

 cyamus muticus, a plant growing in Egypt, are sometimes admixed 

 with and substituted for Hyoscyamus niger. It yields about 1.34 

 per cent of alkaloids, consisting in a large part of Hyoscyamine. Its 

 presence in either the crude or powdered drug of Hyoscyamus may 

 be determined by the characteristic branching non-glandular hairs 

 occurring on both the stems and leaves (Fig. 263). 



