204 ALKALOIDS. 



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

 dUdine see Harneck* ' The latter is gluoosidalj like solanine, and 

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

 whereas ditamine turns splendid purple. 



GeissospermiTie and aspidospermine, compare Fraude.' 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 'IS, 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 &8 per cent, spirit, 

 and 106 of ether. 



Dulcamarme, see Wittstein;* alkaloid ia- EschschoUda, see Walz;* 



^ Anual. d. Chem. und Phan». olxxvi. 88, 326,; clxxviii. 49, 1875 (Phann. 

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

 (Year-book Phann. 171, 1881). 



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

 Ges. xi. 2004, 1878 (Year-book Pharm. 188, 1878) ; ibid, xiii. 1645, 1880 

 (see also ?hann. Joum. and Trans. [3], viii. 803, .1878; xi. 331, 1870). 

 Scharli^'a alstonine (Hesse's alstonanine) from Alstonia spectabilis appears to 

 be closely allied to ditamine, but crystallizes with facility. 



» Ber. d. d. chem. Ges. xi. 2189, 1878 (Year-book Pharm. 19.3, 1879) ; ibid, 

 xii. 1558, 1560 (Phann. Joum. 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]j -riii. 648, 1878). The name .geissoqjsr- 

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

 discovered by Hesse yields reactions closely resembling those of aspido^er- 

 mine (red colouration with nitric acid, etc. ). Sesfe'e 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 tieep 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, ^e 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. xiiL 2308;. see Pharm. Joum. 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 FriShde's reagent, and behaved like 

 strychnine to suI]Auric acid and bichromate of potash. Compiue also Arata, 

 Actas de la Acad., naa. in Buenos Aires, 1881 ; Hefise, Annal. d. Chem, u- 

 Pharmi ccxi. 249, 1882. 



* Phariu. Yierteljahresschr. i. 371, 495, 1850. Cf..§ 167. 



' N. Jahrb. f. Pharm. viii. 223, 1857 (Amer. Journ. Pharm. xxxiV. 329). 

 Compare also my ' Brmittelung d. Gifte.' 



