97 



enable all u.,rk-rs throughout the United States engaged in the investigation of these 

 products t.. arrive at just conclusions relative to their quality. For example, it is 

 intended to lix an upper limit of the amount of foreign material that may be present 

 in a loaf described by the United States Pharmacopoeia and to provide an ash limit 

 i. >r . ertain drills. < onsiderable progress has also been made relative to testing exist- 

 ing anah tical methods and formulating new methods for examining certain com- 



In order to facilitate the investigation, and in harmony with the instructions of the 

 association, the referee appointed several associates to take up specific features of the 

 work. whose results will be given in separate papers. 



A PRELIMINARY STUDY OF THE MICROCHEMICAL ANALYSIS AND 

 IDENTIFICATION OF ALKALOIDS. 



By 15. J. HOWARD and C. H. STEPHENSON. 



The large number of alkaloids used at present in drugs as well as the increasing 

 number of .-\ nthetir product.-* being placed on the market has made felt the want of 

 additional means for their identification. Microchemical methods have been sug- 

 gested and used to a limited extent by such workers as Wormley, Earth, and Behrens, 

 hut the principal application of the method has been rather for the purpose of localiz- 

 ing the alkaloid in the- tissues, by such investigators as Errera, Maistriau, Clautriau, 

 Hollinu'. and others. 



the suggestion of the Chief of the Division of Drugs this investigation was taken 

 up by the Mien* heinical Laboratory and a study of several alkaloids begun. Only a 

 preliminary report of program can as yet he made, and the field has extended itself in 

 many directions a* the work progressed. The investigation as originally outlined 

 anticipated -e\eral lines of work, among which the following might be mentioned: 



The normal reaction of each alkaloid with each of the various reagents which 

 are known to he of -er\ x e w ith one or more of them. This involves a study of dilu- 



the dilution ni the alkaloid which will respond to the test and also the weight 

 limit of alkal'. ill \\hidi \\ill u'ive po-iti\e i,. s t s with the reagent. It also involves a 

 .-tudy of the form- of crystals produced at the various dilutions, the conditions for 

 producing the reaction, or the manipulation, the determination of melting points, 

 photographing the crystals as a ma; -rd, and in some cases the measurement 



udy ni' the inlluence u|H>n the reaction of another alkaloid present than the 

 one sought. 



(3) A study of the influence upon these reactions of such substances as glycerin, 



rch, oilfl, and t'.ir -. -_":m-. u .> v -, and other compounds likely to be found in 

 drui:-. and from trace- of uhich it i- often difficult to remove, for testing, small traces 

 of alkaloid- in .-me medicinal preparations. 



(4) The adaptation of alkaloidal purification methods for use microchemically so 

 as to |H-rmit minute quant it ies of the alkaloids to be separated and prepared for testing. 



The developing of an analytical scheme for systematically identifying micro- 

 chemically the various alkaloids "present in unknown mixtures. This last can only 

 be accomplished after a considerable number have been studied and compared. 



During the la.-t year the work has been practically confined to the first two lines, 

 which naturally constitute the foundation of the whole investigation. The alkaloids 

 studied comprise a list of about forty, besides two or three salts of two of them, most 

 of which were obtained through the Division of Drugs. They were commercial speci- 

 mens and apparently of average purity. The list also embraces several synthetic 

 compounds as well as the more common natural alkaloids. Among the natural alka- 

 l.id-.-r their -alts -tudiod might be mentioned the following: Cocain, codein, atropin, 

 (inchonin, morphin, papaverin, narcein, caffein, strychnin, tropacocain, hydrastin, 

 coniin, berberin, solanin, etc., while among the synthetic bodies studied are anaes- 

 73C73 Bull. 12209 7 



