NOTE ON NARCOTINE AND PRODUCTS OF ITS DECOMPOSITION. 211 
The properties of pectic matters are known to be liable to some change ; I 
found, that sometimes the pectic acid is not immediately separated from the 
ammoniacal solution on addition of acetic acid, but requires the addition of 
alcohol. 
I was curious to know, whether pectin must be considered a constituent of 
the juice of the actual poppy-head or the capsule itself. An assay made 
with nearly ripe capsules showed that they do not contain any pectin—at 
least I could not obtain it in the same way as I did from opium. A very 
considerable proportion of pectin however (22 per cent.) has been found in 
poppy seeds by Sacc* 
Mr. J. D. Smith called attention to a very interesting specimen of English opium, 
collected about twenty years since by Sir Roger Martin, at Burnham Westgate, in 
Norfolk. Mr. Spencer, chemist, had kindly sent this for inspection. It was a mass 
weighing some pounds, and excited much admiration of its apparently excellent quality. 
NOTE ON NAKCOTINE AND PRODUCTS OE ITS DECOM¬ 
POSITION. 
BY J. C. BROUGH, F.C.S. 
The object of the present note is to indicate the line of research pursued 
by Dr. A. Matthiessen, F.R.S., and Professor G. C. Foster, B.A., in their 
successful attempts to elucidate the chemical constitution of the important 
alkaloid narcotine. Through the kindness of my friend Dr. Matthiessen, 
you have now an opportunity of examining specimens of the principal pro¬ 
ducts of the decomposition of narcotine ; and I have much pleasure in 
informing you that the elaborate investigation which these specimens illus¬ 
trate has been sustained by the liberality of Messrs. J. F. Macfarlane 
and Co., of Edinburgh, who have furnished the greater portion of the narco¬ 
tine operated upon. 
Since 1803, the date of its discovery by Derosne, narcotine has been the 
subject of many investigations, and in 1844 Blvth proposed for it a formula 
corresponding to the modern expression C 23 H 25 N 0 7 . This formula was 
generally accepted until 1863, when the analyses of six samples of narcotine 
from different kinds of opium led Matthiessen and Foster to adopt the for¬ 
mula C 22 H 23 N 0 7 as that which most correctly expressed the composition of 
the body analysed. The adoption of this formula necessitated a revision of 
the received formula of opianic acid and cot amine, the tw ? o bodies into which 
narcotine is resolved under the influence of oxidizing agents. The results of 
this revision w T ere a fresh confirmation of the accepted formula of opianic 
acid, C 10 H 10 O 5 , and the adoption of the modified formula C 12 H 13 NG 3 for 
cotarnine. The action of oxidizing agents on narcotine may accordingly be 
represented by the following simple equation :—• 
C 22 H 23 N 0 7 + O = C 10 H 10 O, + C 12 H 13 N 0 3 . 
JNarcotine. Opianic Acid. Cotarnine. 
Having devised a good process for transforming narcotine into opianic acid 
and cotarnine, the investigators proceeded to study the action of various re¬ 
agents on these derivatives. On heating opianic acid with strong hydro¬ 
chloric acid or with fuming hydriodic acid in sealed tubes, the opianic acid 
* ‘ Annales de Chimie et de Physique,’ xxvii. (1850) 473. 
