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XVI. — On the Alkaloids contained in the Wood of the Bebeeruor Greenheart Tree 

 (Nectandra Rodioei, Schorab.). By Douglas Maclagan, M.D., F.R.S.E., 

 Professor of Medical Jurisprudence in the University of Edinburgh, and 

 Arthur Gamgee, M.D., F.R.S.E., Lecturer on Physiology in Surgeon's Hall, 



Edinburgh. 



(Read 3d May 1S69.) 



In a paper read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh in April 1843,* Dr 

 Maclagan described the general properties of the alkaloid, whose presence had 

 been indicated in the bark of the bebeeru or greenheart tree, by Dr Rome of 

 Demerara, and described the mode of preparation of its sulphate for medicinal 

 use. The fact that bebeerine appeared to possess marked antiperiodic pro- 

 perties^- rendered its careful chemical study desirable, and accordingly the alka- 

 loid, purified as far as possible, was subjected to analysis by Drs Maclagan and 

 Tilley.J It resulted from this research that bebeerine is an uncrystallisable 

 base, very soluble in alcohol, less so in ether, and very sparingly so in water. It 

 forms with acids salts which are all uncrystallisable. With perchloride of 

 gold, mercury, copper, and platinum, it gives precipitates which are soluble to a 

 certain extent in water and alcohol, but which are deposited in a non-ciwstalline 

 form when the solution cools. To this base the author assigned the formula 

 C 35 H 20 N 2 O 6 (C = 6). Von Planta* subsequently attempts to purify further the 

 alkaloid, and assigned to it the formula C 36 H 21 6 N(C = 6) or C 18 H 21 3 N(C=12.) 



In consequence of the apparent impossibility to obtain bebeerine in a crystal- 

 line form, it is impossible to state whether the substances examined by Maclagan 

 and Tillev, or by Von Planta, were absolutely pure ; and there is no evidence 

 to show that the product obtained by the latter chemist was purer than that 

 examined by the former investigators. Since the time when these papers were 

 published, sulphate of bebeerine has found its way into medical practice, and 

 the experience of many appears to show that it is possessed of no insignificant 

 tonic and antiperiodic properties. The sulphate of bebeerine, as it occurs in the 

 market, has been, we believe, almost entirely manufactured by Messrs Macfarlane 

 & Co. of Edinburgh. 



Experimenting with various portions of the bebeeru tree, one of the members 



* Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. xv. part. iii. 

 t Maclagan, Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, April 1845. 

 J London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine, series iii. vol. xxvii. p. 253. 



VOL. XXV. PART II. 7 H 



