ACONITE GROUP OP ALKALOIDS. 
365 
§ 433 -] 
Aconitine, the pure alkaloid. 
Aconitine ointment, containing 2 per cent, aconitine. 
Tincture of aconite. A strong tincture is first prepared, the quantity 
of alkaloids determined, and it is then diluted to a strength of 0*04 per 
cent. ; the limit of error either way is given as 2 mgrms. 
Liniment of aconite, made from aconite root, and containing camphor 
and alcohol; the strength is adjusted to 0-2 per cent. ; limit of plus 
or minus error 10 mgrms. 
A solution of nitrate of aconitine, in occasional use hypodermically, is 
also in commerce, but is not official. 
§ 433. The species of aconite are numerous ; the few that have been 
investigated clearly indicate that the genus is rich in poisonous alkaloids 
and that there are several aconitines. 
Professor Dunstan, 1 who has been for many years investigating this 
subject, summarises the results obtained up to the present somewhat as 
follows :— 
The alkaloids of aconite plants may be divided into two groups : the 
first, a toxic group, of which the type is ordinary aconitine, contains 
alkaloids which are diacyl esters of a series of poly-hydric bases con¬ 
taining four methoxyl groups, the aconines. 
The members of this group are— 
Aconitine from Aconitum napellus. 
Japaconitine from Aconitum deinorrhysum. 
Bikhaconitine from Aconitum spicatus. 
Indaconitine from Aconitum chasmanthum. 
All these are highly poisonous and exert a very similar physiological 
action. When the acetyl group is removed by hydrolysis the resulting 
benzoyl or veratroyl base is but feebly poisonous ; still hydrolysing leads 
to the splitting off of the aconines, bases not only destitute of toxic power, 
but in some respects acting in an antagonistic way to the aconitine 
parent. 
The second group is the atisine group, which contains atisine from 
Aconitu?n Incterophyllum and palmatine from Aconitum palmatum ; these 
two alkaloids are not poisonous and therefore will not be described. 
The aconitine group of alkaloids is divided into (1) Aconitines, (2) 
Pseudaconitines, and these may provisionally be represented by the 
following formulae :— 
1 . Aconitines. 
Aconitine (acetyl-benzoyl-aconine), 
/OCO.CH 3 
C 34 H 47 O u N=C 21 H 27 0 3 N<(-(OCH 3 ) 4 
\oco.c 6 h 5 
1 W. R. Dunstan, F.R.S., and T. Anderson Henry, Journ. Chem. tioc., T., 
1905, p. 1650. 
