204 ALKALOIDS. 



Ditamine (echitamine), see Gorup Besanez, and Hesse ; l for 

 ditaine see Harneck. 2 The latter is glucosidal, like solanine, and 

 assumes a flesh-colour when treated with cone, sulphuric acid, 

 whereas ditamine turns splendid purple. 



Geissospermine and aspidospermine, compare Fraude. 3 The latter 

 yields a deep violet solution when warmed with excess of 

 perchloride of platinum ; heated with dilute sulphuric acid and a 

 little chlorate of potash, or with perchloric acid of sp. gr. 1*13, it 

 turns deep red ; with sulphuric acid and peroxide of lead, brown, 

 changing to cherry-red. If not quite pure, in the latter case a 

 violet colour is produced. At a temperature of 14 aspidosper- 

 mine dissolves in 6,000 parts of water, 48 of 98 per cent, spirit, 

 and 106 of ether. 



Dukamarine, see Wittstein; 4 alkaloid in Eschscholtzia, see Walz; 5 



1 Annal. d. Chem. und Pharm. clxxvi. 88, 326 ; clxxviii. 49, 1875 (Pharm. 

 Journ. and Trans. [3], vi. 142, 1875). Ber. d. d. chem. Ges. xiii. 1841, 1880 

 (Year-book Pharm. 171, 1881). 



2 Archiv f. exper. Pathol. und Pharmacol. vii. 128, 1877. Ber. d. d. chem. 

 Ges. xi. 2004, 1878 (Yearbook Pharm. 188, 1878); ibid. xiii. 1645, 1880 

 (see also Pharm. Journ. and Trans. [3], viii. 803, 1878 ; xi. 331, 1870). 

 Scharlee's alstonine (Hesse's alstonanine) from Alstonia spectabilis appears to 

 be closely allied to ditamine, but crystallizes with facility. 



3 Ber. d. d. chem. Ges. xi. 2189, 1878 (Year-book Pharm. 193, 1879) ; ibid, 

 xii. 1558, 1560 (Pharm. Journ. and Trans. [3], x. 712, 1880). See also my 

 observations in the Jahresb. f. Pharm. 120, 1878 ; and Hesse, ibid, 115, 

 1877 (Pharm. Journ. and Trans. [3], viii. 648, 1878). The name geissosper- 

 mine appears to have been applied to two different alkaloids, of which the one 

 discovered by Hesse yields reactions closely resembling those of aspidosper- 

 mine (red colouration with nitric acid, etc.). Hesse's geissospermine produces 

 a splendid red colour with sulphuric acid and bichromate of potassium, blue 

 with sulphuric acid and ferric salts, deep blue with Frohde's reagent, and 

 changes the colour of chloride of gold solution to a deep red. It can be 

 removed from solution by shaking with benzene or chloroform, and is accom- 

 panied by an alkaloid which is easily soluble in ether and turns reddish- 

 violet with sulphuric acid. The identity of aspidospermine and paytine 

 already alluded to ( 186) is contested by Hesse. The same chemist has also 

 lately discovered a second alkaloid in quebracho, which he calls quebrachine ; 

 it is coloured blue with sulphuric acid and peroxide of lead (Ber. d. d. chem. 

 Ges. xiii. 2308 ; see Pharm. Journ. and Trans. [3], xii. 704). In examining 

 quebracho bark, I noticed that chloroform extracted from acid solutions ( 55) 

 a small quantity of an alkaloid giving the reaction of aspidospermine. Solu- 

 tions rendered alkaline with ammonia yielded to petroleum spirit and benzene 

 a mixture that reacted like aspidospermine with sulphuric acid and chlorate of 

 potash, but was coloured splendid violet by Frbhde's reagent, and behaved like 

 strychnine to sulphuric acid and bichromate of potash. Compare also Arata, 

 Actas de la Acad. nac. in Buenos Aires, 1881 ; Hesse, Annal. d. Chem. u. 

 Pharm. ccxi. 249, 1882. 



4 Pharm. Vierteljahresschr. i. 371, 495, 1850. Cf. 167. 



5 N. Jahrb. f. Pharm. viii. 223, 1857 (Amer. Journ. Pharm. xxxiv. 329). 

 Compare also my 'Ermittelung d. Gifte.' 



