34 
Note  on  Narceine. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Jan.,  1890. 
NOTE  ON  NARCEINE. 
By  P.  C.  Plugge,  Ph.  D.,  M.  D.,  of  Groningen,  Netherlands. 
'Dott's  paper  on  "  Narceine  and  Its  Salts,"  1  has  directed  my  atten- 
tion to  an  earlier  paper  of  Merck's  on  11  Chemically  Pure  Narceine." 2 
Merck,  after  describing  some  experiments  concludes  :  "  This  behavior 
stands  in  contradiction  to  the  assumption  hitherto  current  that  narce- 
ine is  a  very  weak  base/'  and  farther  on  :  "  chemically  pure  narceine, 
contrary  to  previous  statements,  possesses  a  faintly  alkaline  reaction." 
Being  convinced  of  the  correctness  of  both  rejected  assumptions,  I 
feel  obliged  to  defend  my  opinion,  which  is  more  in  harmony  with 
•  Dott's. 
To  Dott's  remark  "  that  Merck,  like  many  other  German  chemists, 
ignores  the  work  done  by  English  and  French  chemists,"  I  can  add, 
that  Merck  seems  to  be  equally  ignorant  of  the  work  done  by  a  Dutch 
chemist,  even  after  the  publication  of  the  results  of  his  work  in  a 
wide-spread  German  journal.  However,  my  paper  on  opiuui  alka- 
loids seems  also  to  be  unknown  to  Mr.  Dott.  Otherwise  this  author 
would  probably  have  strengthened  his  refutation  of  Merck's  conclu- 
sions in  respect  to  the  strength  of  the  base  narceine  with  some  of  the 
results  of  my  investigations  on  opium  alkaloids. 
I  entirely  agree  with  Dott  that  the  tendency  to  form  basic  salts  is 
no  proof  of  strength  ;  and  in  my  opinion  the  somewhat  strange  ex- 
periment of  Merck  with  narceine,  moistened  with  acetic  acid,  etc.,  is  of 
no  value  in  settling  this  question. 
Beferring  for  further  particulars  to  my  circumstantial  exposition  in 
the  Archiv  der  Pharmacie,3  I  will  here  shortly  repeat  the  data  on  the 
strength  of  which  I  have  divided  the  opium  alkaloids  into  strong 
and  weak  bases,  and  have  classed  the  narceine  with  the  last-named 
group. 
I.  Differing  from  all  other  alkaloids,  also  from  morphine,  codeine 
and  thebaine,  the  three  weak  opium  bases,  narcotine,  papaverine,  and 
narceine,  have  no  blue-coloring  action  upon  a  solution  of  red  litmus, 
nor  any  power  of  neutralizing  acids.  Therefore,  the  acid  in  the  solu- 
tions of  salts  of  those  alkaloids  can  be  estimated  with  alkali-lye  and 
litmus  tincture,  as  well  as  in  solutions  of  free  acids. 
1  Pharm.  Journ.  [3],  xx,  335  (Oct.  26, 1889). 
2  Ibid  [3],  xix,  1C35  (June  22, 1889). 
Archiv  d.  Pharmacie,  xxiv  (1886),  993  ;  xxv  (1887),  45, 49, 421,  793  and  805. 
