ON THE CHEMISTRY OF SOME OF THE LESSEE-KNOWN ALKALOIDS. 133 



Report of the Committee, consisting of Mr. W. Chandler Roberts, 

 F.R.S. (Secretary), Dr. C. R. Alder Wright, and Mr. A. P. Luff, 

 appointed for the purpose'of investigating the Chemistry of 

 some of the lesser-knoivn Alkaloids, especially Ver atria and 

 Bebeerine. 



Since last year investigations have been made on the alkaloids contained 

 in Veratrum album, and V. viride, with the following general results. As 

 the details of the experiments have already been communicated to the 

 Chemical Society in two papers (' Journal of the Chemical Society,' 

 1879, i. pp. 405 and 421), it is unnecessary to quote them here. 



Each kind of root was treated by the process described in last year's 

 Report, viz., percolating with alcohol acidulated with tartaric acid, 

 evaporating to a small bulk, treating with water to precipitate resin, 

 filtering, alkalising with soda, and repeatedly shaking with a large bulk 

 of ether, the ethereal solutions of alkaloids, &c, thus obtained being 

 agitated with aqueous tartaric acid to remove the bases and then used 

 over again. In each case a certain amount of flocculent alkaloidal mat- 

 ter was left undissolved by the ether, consisting mainly of an alkaloid 

 analogous to jervine, but differing therefrom in certain respects, to which 

 accordingly the name Pseudojervine is applied. The solutions of tartrates 

 of alkaloids obtained were treated with soda and about an equal bulk of 

 ether, whereby a large portion of the bases was dissolved in each case, 

 but some left undissolved, especially with the V. album product ; this 

 insoluble matter contained pseudojervine, together with a little jervine, 

 and in the case of the V. album product, a large quantity of an 

 uncrystallisable base sparingly soluble in ether, to which the term 

 Veratralbine is applied, as this body does not seem to be present in 

 V. viride roots in any considerable proportion. The second ethereal 

 solutions thus obtained deposited in each case crystals of jervine and a 

 little of a new base to which the term Rubijervine is applied ; the mother 

 liquors of these crystals dried up to varnish-like masses, which were not 

 identical in the two cases ; the product from V. album roots consisted 

 essentially of veratralbine, with a minute quantity of an alkaloid forming 

 veratric acid on saponification with alcoholic potash ; this base was the 

 only alkaloid of the saponifiable class present in the roots ; presumably it 

 was the veratrine obtainable from V. sabadilla seeds, as described in last 

 year's Report, inasmuch as the mixture of this base and veratralbine 

 obtained was powerfully sternutatory, whilst the peculiar tendency to 

 provoke sneezing was lost on treatment with alcoholic potash (neither 

 jervine, pseudojervine, rubijervine, nor veratralbine produces sneezing). 

 The product from the V. viride roots was even more powerfully sternu- 

 tatory than that from the V. album roots ; it consisted, however, almost 

 wholly of Cevadine (the second crystallisable alkaloid obtainable from 

 V. sabadilla seeds, as described in last year's Report), not more than 

 traces of either veratralbine or veratrine being contained ; on saponifica- 

 tion it yielded about the theoretical quantity of cevadic acid (the 

 methyl-crotonic acid of Frankland and Duppa, identical with the tiglic acid 

 of Geuther). 



