E. M. Watson. 
9 1 
tained from Duboisiu alone and the suggestion was put forward that the 
material examined by Rothcra contained an appreciable amount of dust 
from the easily powdered leaves of Nicotiana excelsior J. M. Black (62). 
A re-examination of material from South Australia led to the isolation of 
d-nornicotine by Spilth (63) with no indication of the presence of nicotine. 
This material, however, had been wet by heavy rain and had been kept 
damp for some considerable time, leading to partial racemisation of the 
nornieotine. It is quite possible that demethylation of any nicotine present 
may have occurred at the same time. 
As part of a programme drawn up by the Drug Panel of the Depart- 
ment of Industrial Development, Dr. I). E. White has carried out some 1 
preliminary work on D. Hopivoodii from the vicinity of Ajana. He has 
shown that the principal alkaloid present is nicotine and that nornieotine, 
if present at all, occurs only in very small amount. Subsequent work on 
material collected on varying soil types from the vicinity of Ganna to a 
little south of Perenjori has shown that nicotine is always the predominant 
alkaloid but that occasionally the nornieotine content (calculated on the 
yield of the picrates) approaches very close to the nicotine content. The 
repeated statement that /). Ilopwoodii from the Eastern States contains no 
nicotine can perhaps only be explained by the existence of physiological 
forms of the plant. The investigation is being continued. 
Further genera of importance in this family are Antliocerc&s, Antho- 
troche , Batura and N i cot kina. Anthocercis viscosa R. Br. contains the oily 
alkaloid anthocereine (21) and A. littorea Labill. has been held responsible 
for the death of children. This and other species of the same genus, as well 
as the species of the closely related genus Anthotroche, require examination. 
The introduced Datura Metel L., B. Tatula L. and B. 'Stramonium L. have 
been thoroughly investigated in other parts of the world and Finnemore 
has examined Australian grown material. B. Metel has been shown to 
contain chiefly hyoscine with a little atropine or hyosevamine and norhyo- 
scyamine, B. Stramonium to contain hyosevamine in the leaves and seeds 
and both hyosevamine and hyoscine in the roots, while B. Tatula contains 
hyoscyamine and atropine. The maximum amounts of alkaloids recorded 
do not differ materially from the maxima recorded for Britain and else- 
where. I). Leichhardtii F. Muell. has not been examined in Western Aus- 
tralia. 
A icotiana glaucci Grah. has been investigated by many workers and has 
until recently been considered to contain only nicotine to the extent of 
something less than one per cent. Quite recently, Smith and Smith (64) 
have shown that anabasine makes up about 97 per cent, of a total of little 
more than 0.6 per cent, of alkaloids and that nicotine is present only in 
very small amount. N. suaveolens Lehm. was recognised by Staiger in 1886 
as containing a volatile alkaloid which resembled nicotine. This alkaloid was 
considered to be the toxic principle of the plant until Smith and Smith 
(loc. cit . ) showed it to contain both nicotine and nornieotine, the latter 
making up about 65 per cent, of a total of less than 0.5 per cent, of 
alkaloids. N. excelsior does not appear to have been examined chemically. 
It is used by the aborigines, as is Duboisia HopwoodM , as an emu and kan- 
garoo poison, and Hicks (62) records its use as a chewing narcotic. 
The genus Solanum is the largest of the family Solanaceae in Western 
Australia. Many of its members contains the high molecular weight 
alkaloids of the glycosidic steroid type such as solasonine (solanine-s), and 
are therefore more or less toxic. S. cJienopodinum F. Muell. (21), S. nig - 
