ZYGADENUS, OR DEATH CAMAS. 3 



and removed various oily and resinous substances by precipitation 

 with water and extraction with petroleum ether. These resinous 

 bodies were not toxic. Vejux-Tyrode (1904) later obtained similar 

 resinous bodies to which he ascribed a high degree of toxicity, but 

 Heyl and Hepner (1913) could not confirm this. 



Hunt purified the extract further, and then, by extraction with 

 chloroform, obtained an amorphous substance alkaline to litmus and 

 giving the usual alkaloidal reactions. It was very slightly soluble in 

 water, but readily soluble in dilute acids. When treated with con- 

 centrated sulphuric acid this substance dissolved with the formation 

 of an orange-yellow solution; the color soon became a blood orange, 

 and finally a bright cherry red. This play of colors corresponds 

 almost exactly to that caused by cevadin and to that recently 

 described by Heyl, Hepner, and Loy (1913) for zygadenin, an 

 alkaloid obtained by them from Zygadenus intermedins. Hunt 

 found, as did Heyl, Hepner, and Loy later, that the alkaloid was not 

 readily extracted with ether. When the alkaloid or mixture of 

 alkaloids was further purified, dissolved in alcohol, and the alcohol 

 allowed to evaporate, a clear, glassy residue with a few cubes or 

 prisms was obtained. This began to darken at 185° C. At 197° C. 

 part of it melted to form a red solution, but all of it did not melt 

 until a temperature of 220° C. was reached. It is quite probable that 

 this mixture consisted in part of the alkaloid since isolated by Heyl, 

 Hepner, and Loy and named by them zygadenin. Zygadenin crys- 

 tallizes from alcohol in " orthorhombic blocks" and melts to a red oil 

 at 200° to 201° C. Hunt pointed out a number of resemblances and 

 also certain differences between the reactions of the alkaloids obtained 

 from Zygadenus and those given by cevadin and other veratrin 

 alkaloids and concluded that both chemically and pharmacologically 

 the two series were closely related. 



Torald Sollman, in a report submitted to the Department of Agri- 

 culture in 1903, stated that he could find no poisonous principle in 

 Zygadenus other than the alkaloid or mixture of alkaloids found by 

 Hunt. 



These results were confirmed by Slade (1905) and by Heyl, Hepner, 

 and Loy. The latter authors carried the work to the point of 

 isolating in pure form an alkaloid which they named zygadenin, 

 although the question whether this may not be identical with some 

 one of the veratrin alkaloids is, perhaps, still open. It may also be 

 doubted whether zygadenin is the most important toxic agent in 

 Zygadenus, for these authors quote Mitchell as reporting that "it 

 (zygadenin) kills guinea pigs slowly and only in comparatively large 

 doses." Hunt found 4 milligrams per kilo of his alkaloidal prepara- 

 tion to be fatal to rabbits in an hour or two. Sollman found about 

 the same amount of cevadin to be fatal. 



