- 3.3 - 
HoPTk (114) at the Fifth rr.cific Science Congi'ess, Canada, 1933, re- 
ported on recent develcpaents in insecticide research. For mony years 
efforts have teen made to s^.Trithesize a cocpound that rould have insecti- 
cidal properties sinilar to those of nicotine. The most promising of 
these is neonicotiiie, fo'JLnd ty Smith, Kichardson, fjnd Shepard to compare 
fa.voraoly vzith nicotine in killing the bean aphid, Aphi s rionicis . 
Recently Russian investigators h-ave fo'and neonicotine (called anahasine "by 
them) in a r:eed of the sugar -"beet family knom as Anahasis aphylla . This 
plant contains ahout 2 percent total alka-loids, including ana'oasine, 
methyl anahasine , and lupinine. An extract of the Anabasis plant has 
recently been placed on the n?j:ket under the n-yne of anabasine sulphate. 
In 1934 an anonymous (2) v/riter in Science Service called attention 
to anabasine as an insecticide. 
"Anabasine is a double discover^--. American chemists, striving 
to make something stronger than nicotine, synthesized a compound 
vhich they called 'neonicotine.' At the same time, Hussirn chemists 
extracted a most efficient insect poison from a common vreed bearing 
the classic Greek name Ar abasis , rxid cr21ed in anabasine. A com- 
parison of the synthetic 3X.C. the natural compounds shorred them to be 
chemi cally i dent i cal . 
" Anabasis is a -jenus of dry-land vreeds common in North Africa, 
Asia Minor pjid parts of Russia. There are about fifty species, 
of r/hich only one, anabasis aphyllum , ha.s been investigated as a 
source of insect poison. The plant is related to such common American 
•"eeds as lamb's quarter, tumbletreed and greasevrood. 
'Chile chemists and entomologists are looking into its useful- 
ness as a source of aphid poison, botanists of the United States 
Deprxtment of Agriculture are undertpJcing tests to find tvhether it 
can be gro77n rzith profit in some of the w.arm, dry lands of the 
Southnest, V7hich are similar to its native habitat." 
The United States Deprxtraent of ^Agriculture, Bureau of Cher.iistry and 
Soils' (155), in its annual report for 1934 referred to the ^ork of Nelson 
in determining the physical properties of anabasine. 
The United States Department of Agriculture, Bureau of 3ntomolngy 
and Plant Ouoxojitine (156), in its anivoal report for 1935 called attention 
to Smith's isolation of anabasine from I'icotiana .?;lauca grov7ing in the 
Scut h'-e stern States. 
Robinson (llS) in 1935 published a review; of the literatvire for 1933- 
34 dealing v/ith the chemical constitution of anabasine, and other alka- 
loids. 
Orekhov (94) in 1936 reviev/ed recent alkaloidal investigations. The 
production of anabasine is organized at the Chimkentsky plant located at 
ICazalcstpji, U. S. S. H. , v/here the rav/ material is fo\ind in great abundance. 
