TI 5 ' 
SOME OF THE CHEMICAL 
CONSTITUENTS OF GUARANA 
M. NIERENSTEIN, Ph.D. 
LECTURER OX BIO-CHEMISTRY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL 
(Received for publication January 2 , 1910) 
The guarana used for this investigation was kindly given to me 
by Dr. Wolferstan Thomas, who informed me that the drug is used 
as a remedy against diarrhoea in Brazil. The work was carried out 
by me while still on the staff of the Liverpool School of Tropica 
Medicine, in the Runcorn Research Laboratories. 
As far as my present results go, the chief and probably the 
effective constituent of the particular guarana 1 examined by m 
the alkaloid C 40 H 47 O 2l N 4 , for which the name $-guar mine is 
suggested. The fl-guarinine differs from Martins s’ guanmne, 
isolated by him from Paullinia sorbilis, in that I was unable to 
identify it either with theine or with theobromine, whereas guarini 
is, according to Berthemot and Dechatelas- 1 simply theine lhis is 
of interest, as the alkaloids both of Paullinia sorbilis (v. cufa 
and P. cambess are either theine, theobromine, or a mixture o o 
alkaloids. However, it ought to be mentioned that neither of t ose 
two species of Paullinia are used for diarrhoea, according o 
Dekker, 4 who states, only with reference to Paullinia /rl g° n ™> 
Velios : ‘ de zwak gerooste zaden teger diarrhoe. 11S P ro ‘ 
accounts for the fact that I was unable to find in the guarana 
examined, an alkaloid of a known purine type. 
ft-guar in in e 
The finely powdered material was extracted with al ^ 
containing 1 per cent, of hydrochloric acid, at <■ tempera 
