The Chemistry and the Chemical Exploitation of Western 
Australian Plants. 
9 :; 
and prussic acid from eastern material while Earl and his co-workers (58) 
have isolated a saponin which hydrolyses to give glucose and an aglucone 
which in turn gives benzoic and cinnamic acids and the substance sarcostin 
which is considered to be probably a steroid. 
Other indigenous plants known to contain saponins are Trymcdium 
xpathulatum (Labill.) Ostf. and Pittosporu-m. phillyreoides. 
(iii) Other Toxic Glycosides. 
The cape tulips Homeria codtna Vent, and H. miniata Sweet are both 
toxic, the latter having a digitalis-like action on the heart, constricting blood 
vessels, raising blood pressure and having a curare-like action on voluntary 
muscle. Watt and Brey er- Brand wijk (32) record the isolation by Mackenzie 
of a glycoside from H . miniata f but Clarke (59), in stating that the poison 
occurs in all parts of the plant, considers it to be probably an alkaloid. 
Raphanns raphanistrum L. is an irritant poison to stock when taken in 
excess and is recorded by Steyn (60) as containing a sinalbin-like glycoside 
together with the hydrolysing enzyme myrodn. Plantago major L. (32) 
contains aucubin in most parts of the plant. The recorded isolation (61) of 
earissin, which resembles stro pliant hin in its action, from the bark of Carissa 
ovata R.Br. is of interest and suggests that C. Janceolata R.Br. might be 
worth investigation. 
(b) Alkaloids. 
Alkaloids are not as widely distributed through the plant kingdom 
as are members of the preceding groups, but when they do occur, they fre- 
quently do so in groups of related substances distributed through plants 
which are closely related botanically. Thus alkaloids of the berberine type 
are distributed through many families of the adjacent orders Ranales and 
Rhoeadales, while individual families like the family Solanaceae are par- 
ticularly rich in alkaloids, in this case of more than one type. 
In the family Solanaceae, the genus Duboisia is of outstanding im- 
portance. In the Eastern States, T). myoporoides R. Br. and D. Leichliardtii 
(F. Muell. ) F. Muell. have been fairly recently developed as major sources 
of hyoscine and hyoscy amine. I), myoporoides appears to exist in two 
physiological forms, in one of which (that which occurs in Queensland and 
in New South Wales north of Gosford) hyoscine predominates, while in the 
other, the southern form, hyoscyamine is the principal alkaloid. Hvoscya- 
mine is, however, more readily recovered from D. Leichhardtii which con- 
tains about 3 per cent, of the alkaloid in its leaves. 
I). Hopwoodii , the only species of the genus occurring in Western Aus- 
tralia, has been examined by numerous workers. This plant, the pituri or 
chewing narcotic of the aborigines, was first examined chemically by Ban- 
croft who showed that the alkaloid it contained was different from that 
occurring in D. 'myoporoides. Von Mueller, in 1879, concluded that the 
■alkaloid was similar to but not identical with nicotine. The name piturine 
was given to the alkaloid but it was subsequently shown to give reactions 
similar to those of nicotine. The identity of the alkaloid appeared to be 
•satisfactorily settled when Rothera in 1910 isolated only nicotine from a 
specimen of pituri identified by Ewart as consisting of D. Hopwoodii. 
Doubt was cast on the accuracy of this work when it was subsequently learned 
that, in parts of South Australia at any rate, pituri was not always ob- 
