78  Recent  Literature  Relating  to  Pharmacy.     { AFebruYrV%a(x)m 
Attempts  at  isolation  of  the  ferment  were  scarcely  successful,  the 
product  being  almost  void  of  oxidizing  properties,  showing  that  the 
boiling  alcohol  used  in  extraction  destroyed  the  activity  of  the  fer- 
ment. The  ash  of  these  products  from  both  drugs  were  examined. 
That  from  aconite  contained  iron  and  scarcely  any  manganese; 
while  in  the  belladonna  product  manganese  predominated.  This 
variant  composition  still  leaves  unsettled  the  question  whether  the 
oxidation  by  such  ferments  is  controlled  by  manganese. 
H.V.A. 
PICROTOXIN. 
The  chemical  literature  touching  this  official  is  filled  with  con- 
flicting statements,  some  investigators  claiming  it  is  a  definite 
chemical  compound — citing  its  constant  melting  point  (i99°-200°  C.) 
as  proof — while  others  insist  it  consists  of  two  bodies.  This  view 
is  held  by  Meyer  and  Bruger  {Ber.  d.  Dentsch.  Chem.  Ges.,  31,  2958), 
who  have  separated  the  two  bodies,  calling  them  picrotoxinin  and 
picrotin.  The  separation  is  accomplished  with  boiling  chloro- 
form, in  which  picrotoxinin  dissolves  with  only  traces  of  pic- 
rotin. Better,  however,  is  the  separation  by  treatment  of  picrc- 
toxin  with  bromine,  when  a  crystalline  monobromo-  derivative  of 
picrotoxinin  is  formed,  while  the  picrotin  is  unaffected.  This 
method  of  separation  is  quantitative  and  shows  that  commercial 
picrotoxin  consists  of  54  per  cent,  picrotoxinin  and  46  per  cent, 
picrotin.  The  crystallization  from  a  solution  containing  this  propor- 
tion of  the  two  substances  yields  a  product  identical  with  the 
official. 
Picrotoxinin  is  obtained  from  the  mono-bromo  derivative  by 
cooking  with  zinc  dust  and  acetic  acid.  It  crystallizes  from  acetic 
acid  in  fine  colorless  needles  of  melting-point  200-201 0  C,  and 
gives  orange-red  coloration  with  concentrated  sulphuric  acid. 
Gaseous  hydrochloric  acid  passed  through  its  ethereal  solution 
produces  a  polymere,  picrotoxid,  which  melts  at  308-3  io°  C. 
Picrotoxinin  reduces  Fehling's  solution  on  warming,  is  very  bitter, 
and  is  the  active  physiological  principle  of  picrotoxin.  Its  formula 
is  C15H1606.  Picrotin,  C15H1807,  crystallizes  from  hot  water  in  white 
woolly  crystals,  melting  at  248-2500  C.  It  yields  mono-  and  di- 
benzoyl  derivatives  and  a  nitro  body.  It  is  but  slightly  affected  by 
alkalies  and  by  potassium  permanganate  or  bichromate. 
H.  V.  A. 
