400 POISONS : THEIR EFFECTS AND DETECTION. [§ 464. 
and Hyoscyamus albus (black and white henbane) : it is also found in the 
Duboisia myoporoides. Dunstan and Brown 1 have found that Hyoscy¬ 
amus muticus contains only hyoscyamine, and that the plant grown in 
Egypt is much richer in the alkaloid than is the European variety ; 
further, they find that the Datura stramonium grown in Egypt also 
contains only hyoscyamine, which is not accompanied by other alkaloids. 
The following table gives the percentage of alkaloid (hyoscyamine) found 
by them in various plants :— 
PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL ALKALOID. 
Roots. 
Leaves. 
Seeds. 
Stem. 
Entire 
Plant. 
Atropa belladonna 
0-21-041 
0-30-0-90 
016-0-37 
Datura stramonium . 
0-15 
0-49 
• . 
.. 
• • 
Hyoscyamus niger— 
(biennial) 
0-15-0-17 
0039-0-69 
0-03 
(annual) 
• • 
0-064-007 
• • 
• • 
• • 
Hyoscyamus muticus . 
• • 
• • 
• • 
046 
• • 
Hyoscyamine (C 17 H 23 N0 3 ), 
CH 2 . CH—CH 2 C 6 H 5 
I I 
NMe CH . O . CO . CH 
CH 2 CH CH 2 c!h 2 OH 
as separated in the course of analysis, is a resinoid, sticky, amorphous 
mass, difficult to dry, and possessing a tobacco-like odour. It can, 
however, be obtained in well-marked odourless crystals, which melt 
at 107°-108°, a portion subliming unchanged. It liquefies under boil¬ 
ing water without crystallisation. According to Thorey, 2 hyoscyamine 
crystallises out of chloroform in rhombic tables, and out of benzene 
in fine needles ; but out of ether or amyl alcohol it remains amorphous. 
When perfectly pure, it dissolves with difficulty in cold, but more 
readily in hot, water ; if impure, it is hygroscopic, and its solubility 
is much increased. In any case, it dissolves easily in alcohol, ether, 
chloroform, amyl alcohol, benzene, and dilute acids. Hyoscyamine 
neutralises acids fully, and forms crystallisable salts, which assume for 
the most part the form of needles. It is isomeric with atropine, and is 
converted into atropine by heating to 110° without air, or by allowing 
to stand in weak alkaline solution. It is the laevo-rotatory modification 
of atropine, 3 [a] D — 22° on neutralising the base; the value calculated 
1 Journ. Chem. Soc., 1899, T., p. 72 ; 1901, T., p. 79. 
2 Pharm. Zeitschr. f. Rusal., 1869. 
