152 
The  Salts  of  Narcotine. 
(Am,  Jour.  Pharm. 
\     March,  1884. 
THE  SALTS  OF  NARCOTINE.1 
By  David  Brown  Dott,  F.B.S.E.,  Pharmaceutical  Chemist. 
The  subject  I  have  chosen  for  discussion  in  this  short  paper  has  not,, 
at  first  sight,  a  very  obvious  interest  for  pharmacists,  but,  I  think 
further  consideration  will  show  that  it  has  a  bearing  on  pharmacy  in 
two  ways.  These  are,  firstly,  the  importance  of  narcotine  on  account 
of  its  presence  in  nearly  all  the  Pharmacopoeia  preparations  of  opium ; 
and,  secondly,  the  possibility  of  its  salts  passing  into  therapeutical  use. 
No  one  can  have  studied,  ever  so  slightly,  the  literature  of  opium 
and  its  assay,  and  have  failed  to  observe  how  frequently  narcotine  has 
been  to  the  chemist  a  stumbling-block  and  source  of  trouble.  We 
need  not  now  discuss  in  what  various  ways  this  has  arisen.  Although 
it  is  now  many  years  since  Regnault  and  Pobiquet  prepared  and  ana- 
lyzed the  muriate  of  narcotine,  there  is  still  a  prevalent  idea  that  nar- 
cotine is  not  an  alkaloid  at  all,  or,  at  any  rate,  that  it  does  not  form 
well  defined  salts.  In  support  of  this  statement  it  would  be  easy  to 
select  suitable  quotations  from  several  writers,  but  I  shall  take  as  my 
text  the  following  from  Professor  Fliickiger  :2  "  The  narcotine  is  pre- 
sent chiefly  in  the  free  state,  as  it  is  not  really  an  alkaloid  ;  it  is,  there- 
fore, not,  or  not  entirely,  removed  by  water.  With  acetic  acid,  as  well 
as  with  other  acids,  narcotine  forms  not  well-defined  salts ;  the  acids 
are  simply  solvents  from  which  it  again  separates  as  soon  as  the  acid  is 
neutralized."  This  is  for  the  most  part  erroneous,  as  we  shall  very 
soon  see.  Let  us  first  consider  the  various  salts  and  their  properties, 
so  far  as  our  knowledge  goes. 
Meeonate. — This  salt  first  engages  our  attention,  as  it  is  almost  cer- 
tainly the  form  in  which  narcotine  exists  naturally  in  opium.  When  nar- 
cotine and  meconic  acid  are  dissolved  together  in  water,  in  molecular  pro- 
portions, i.  e.,  two  molecules  of  the  base  to  one  of  the  acid  (which  is 
di-basic),  a  syrupy  solution  is  obtained  which  refuses  to  yield  crystals. 
If  evaporated,  the  salt  dries  as  a  varnish.  Unlike  most  amorphous 
salts  this  is  not  readily  taken  up  by  water.  When  the  proportions  for 
the  acid  meeonate  are  used,  a  clear  viscous  solution  is  obtained.  This 
ultimately  becomes  filled  with  crystals,  but  I  have  not  yet  ascertained 
1  Bead  at  an  Evening  Meeting  of  the  North  British  Branch  of  the  Phar- 
maceutical Society,  January  16,  1884. 
2  "Year  Book  of  Pharmacy,"  1879,  p.  543. 
