November 26, 1870-] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
433 
BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE. 
Meeting at Liverpool. 
Wednesday , September \it7i. 
(■ Continued from page 418.) 
Nepaul Aconite. 
BY T. 15. GROVES. 
It had been my intention to furnish the Conference 
with a general view of the recent researches of Professors 
Fliickiger and Klebs on the aconite bases, but for seve¬ 
ral reasons I now abstain from doing so. In the first 
place, Professor Fliickiger has himself communicated to 
the Pharmaceutical Journal a resume of his long and 
able paper, and secondly, poor Professor Ivlebs, to whom 
had been entrusted the physiological portion of the in¬ 
quiry, having been prevented by illness from elaborating 
his notes on the termination of the experiments, has now 
been ordered to the front as a military surgeon, leaving 
his manuscripts unaccessible, and nothing further pub¬ 
lished respecting his labours than is to be found in Pro¬ 
fessor Fliickiger s paper already alluded to. I much 
regret this delay, as I should attach the first importance 
to such method of testing in the case of substances so ill- 
defined chemically, so susceptible of modification in the 
process of extraction, and withal so immensely powerful 
in their action on the living body, as are the group of 
aconite alkaloids. 
Fliickiger’s motive in undertaking his investigation was 
a desire to determine whether or no there were at the 
present time two different aconitinas supplied to the me¬ 
dical profession, and if so, in the second place to determine 
exactly their respective characteristics, and lastly, to as¬ 
certain the source from which each alkaloid was derived. 
In the first and second parts of the subject, he was 
highly successful, and pharmaceutists arc greatly in¬ 
debted to him for establishing indubitably the fact that 
there are both aconitina and pseudaconitina. As regards 
the source of the latter, he regrets his inability to settle 
the moot question, whether it owes its origin to the Indian 
aconite roots known under the name of Bikh, or not. 
Yon SchrofF early declared that such was the case, and 
that he had extracted from Bikh roots an alkaloid he re¬ 
garded as the acrid principle of aconite, as distinguished 
from the narcotic principle represented by German aco¬ 
nitina. But he unfortunately identified this acrid prin¬ 
ciple with Mors on’s aconitina, which substance Fliickiger 
was able to prove identical with the German article, and 
moreover, that it for many years had not perceptibly 
altered its character. Fliickiger’s examination of Bikh, 
limited to the physiological testing of an extract of that 
root, pointed to the conclusion that it contained aconitina, 
not pseudaconitina. It will be well here to read a sum¬ 
mary of Fliickiger’s conclusions. 
1. Aconitina is found in the roots of the European blue- 
flowered aconites, especially A. Xapell us. 
2. It is also found in the Himalayan species that go 
by the name of Bikh, amongst which occurs A. Xapel- 
his , sp. 
3. According to Hiibschmann aconitina is wanting in 
A. Lycoctonum , the yellow-flowered aconite. 
4. Aconitina is characterized by the following proper¬ 
ties. It softens in boiling water, and imparts to phos¬ 
phoric acid that has been concentrated by heating over a 
water bath at from 80° to 100 °, a violet tint that in the 
cold lasts for whole days. Its watery solution tastes 
bitter, not acrid. It is not precipitable by chloride of 
platinum. Soluble in 5 pts. sp. v. r. (7o p. c.), also so¬ 
luble in ether and chloroform. It fuses completely at 
about 120 °. Its nitrate crystallizes well, the free base 
not so distinctly. 
5. The above description (par. 4) applies generally to 
English aconitina, except that occasionally an acrid taste 
accompanies the bitter. 
6 . Hence the term “English aconitina” is not distinc¬ 
tive. 
7. There is found among the varieties of aconitina an 
entirely different basic body, of unknown origin. A con¬ 
jecture may be hazarded that it is derived from the Indian 
Bikh roots. 
8 . It is here referred to under the name pseudaconitina. 
Its discoverer, Yon Schroff, however, called it English 
aconitina. Other chemists have termed it napcllin, nepa- 
lin, acraconitina. 
9. Pseudaconitina does not soften in boiling water, does 
not give the violet colour with phosphoric acid, tastes acrid 
not bitter, does not dissolve in water, is little soluble in 
ether, chloroform and sp. v. r. in tho cold, crystallizes 
readily in large prisms from boiling saturated solutions 
in the above. 
10. Napcllin proper is an alkaloid distinct from the 
above alkaloids. 
11 . Lycoctonin is likewise a distinct alkaloid, and is 
exceedingly well characterized by tho behaviour of its 
watery solution with bromine water and iodohydrargy- 
rate of potassium. 
Equally striking is the quickness with which cautiously 
melted lycoctonin, after completely cooling, becomes re¬ 
converted by moistening with water into crystals. 
I am happy to be in a position to throw considerable 
light on the source of the long-sought pseudaconitina. 
When last in London (in August last) I ascertained 
from our esteemed ex-president, Mr. D. Hanbury, that 
there had been a large importation of Indian aconite 
roots, and that they w r cre obtainable at an exceedingly 
low price. They were represented as coming from Ne¬ 
paul, but whether they were the produce of Aeon it um 
ferox , or of some other aconite, was not ascertainable. I 
at once determined on testing the nature of the alkaloid 
or alkaloids they might contain, and procured from 
Messrs. Barron, Harveys and Co. a supply of the root 3 , 
for which I paid the absurd price of 8 <7. per lb. I say 
absurd, for I have it on record in my price-book that 
when, some years since, I asked for a quotation of price 
of Aconitum feroXy I obtained the answer 22 s. per lb.! 
Six pounds of these roots I treated after the method 
explained in my paper on aconite, read before this Con¬ 
ference at Nottingham in 1866. I need not, therefore, 
repeat its details. Of the roots themselves I exhibit some 
characteristic specimens. In texture they differ much 
from English aconite roots. They are often tough 
and leathery, so that they are difficult to powder, even 
after considerable exposure in tho drying closet. These 
refractory roots are, when completely dry, hard and 
flinty. It appears that, in these cases, starch has be¬ 
come converted into dextrine. In fact, on tearing a 
root, the broken edge appears inclined to transparency, 
exhibiting a sort of waxiness. That this was not due to 
an unusual proportion of resin was evidenced by the re¬ 
sult of my analysis, which showed that the Bikh roots 
were less resinous than the English roots I had previously 
operated upon. 
Omitting mention of the earlier processes, I will com¬ 
mence detail at the point when the alkaloids had been 
concentrated into a crude acid solution, measuring about 
6 ounces. 
This solution, first partially decolorized with animal 
charcoal, was transferred to a separating funnel and alka¬ 
lized with ammonia. It became nearly solid; and I was at 
once aware of the extraordinary richness of the material 
I was treating. Washed repeatedly with ether, the 
magma disappeared. After each ethereal washing, the 
ether was shaken with acidulated water, and used over 
again. The acid solution thus obtained was again 
treated with ammonia and ether. Care was taken to 
contract the bulk as far as possible; and tho ether, loaded 
with alkaloids but yet scarcely coloured, was put asido 
for spontaneous evaporation. After about halt an hour, 
