ERGOT OF RYE. 
§ 599 -] 
soluble in 8*6 parts of water at 8-6°, insoluble in absolute alcohol or 
ether. It is a feeble base, is precipitated with mercuric chloride, 
potassium mercuric iodide, and platinic chloride in excess, but not 
with picric or tannic acids. Like histidine and many other glyoxaline 
derivatives, it gives an intense red colour with sodium p-diazo-benzene- 
sulphonate. It appears to have no physiological action. 
The fixed oil is of a brownish-yellow colour, of aromatic flavour and 
acrid taste ; its specific gravity is 0*924, and it consists chiefly of 
palmitin and olein ; it has no physiological action. 
Trimethylamine is always present ready formed in ergot; it can also 
be produced by the action of potash on ergot. 
§ 599. Detection of Ergot in Animal Matters. —F. Marino-Lecco 
and C. Duccini ( Gazetta , 1914) have experimented on the best method 
of detecting ergot in animal matters, and assert that the following 
method, provided the amount of ergot present is not less than a gramme, 
and no great putrefaction has taken place, is successful. The finely 
divided viscera are heated for six hours with double their volume of 
95-96 per cent, alcohol at 75° C., acidified with tartaric acid. The 
extraction is continued with fresh quantities of alcohol until the latter 
ceases to be coloured ; the combined alcoholic extracts are then evapor¬ 
ated to a syrup under diminished pressure. This syrup is transferred to 
a separating funnel and extracted repeatedly with ether so long as the 
ether is coloured. The result of these operations is that there is (I.) an 
ether extract of colouring-matter and fat, (II.) an acid aqueous solution 
of tartrates of any alkaloids present. 
I. is freed from ether at a low temperature, and the residue, filtered 
if necessary, shaken in an extractor with a small quantity of cold satu¬ 
rated sodium hydrogen carbonate solution. After a long time the alkaline 
layer separates, and according to the quantity of ergot present is of a 
yellowish-red or a violet colour. The alkaline liquid is acidified with 
hydrochloric acid and extracted with ether several times. The ethereal 
liquids are evaporated to a small volume, and the residual liquid examined 
spectroscopically ; the red colouring of ergot in suitable dilution shows 
the three bands A 538, 499, and 467. 
II. The tartaric acid solution, which has been exhausted by ether, 
is alkalised by sodium carbonate, and extracted repeatedly by ether. 
The faintly yellow ethereal extracts are concentrated at a low tempera¬ 
ture and the residue washed with a little water, in which ergotinine is 
insoluble. The ergotinine may be converted into its citrate by shaking 
the ether solution with aqueous citric acid, which acid solution is alkalised 
by sodic carbonate and extracted with ether. This final extract should 
contain any ergotinine, which is identified by the properties and tests 
p. 467. 
Isobutyril formamide is obtained as a sublimate by heating ergotinine 
