Am.  Jour.  Pharrn. 
April,  1890. 
Chemical  Notes. 
175 
Belladonnine. — E.  Diirkopf  (Berichte,  1889,  3183)  states  that 
commercial  belladonnine  is  the  evaporated  mother-liquor  from 
atropine,  after  digesting  its  acid  solution  with  ether  and  chloroform 
to  extract  the  hydrocarbons,  etc.,  the  remaining  atropine  may  be 
split  into  tropine  and  tropic  acid,  while  hyoscine  (about  18  to  20 
pr.  ct.)  remains  in  the  solution  and  the  so-called  belladonnine  remains 
intact.  Hyoscine  gives  a  gold  salt  melting  at  2000  C.  This 
explains  the  presence  of  pseudatropine  among  the  decomposition 
products  of  crude  belladonnine  which  will  be  further  investigated  by 
the  author. 
Ophioxylin. — Wefers-Bettink  (Rec.  trav.  Mm.  de  Pays-bas,  vm, 
319-322)  isolated  from  the  root  of  Ophioxylon  serpentmum,  an 
apocynaceous  plant,  used  in  East  India  as  a  purge  and  anthelmintic, 
by  extraction  with  chloroform  a  yellow  crystalline  principle,  which 
he  named  ophioxylin.  By  means  of  crystallization  from  hot  water 
and  several  times  from  alcohol  it  was  obtained  in  needles  melting  at 
720  C,  and  showing  the  composition  C16H12Og.  It  is  difficultly 
soluble  in  water,  but  easily  soluble  in  chloroform,  benzol,  carbon 
bisulphide  and  glacial  acetic  acid.  The  solution  colors  the  skin  first 
yellow  and  then  brown.  On  careful  heating  ophioxylin  sublimes. 
The  yield  is  about  0-2  per  cent.  The  principle  somewhat  resem- 
bles juglone. 
-  Alkaloids  of  Stylophorum  diphyllum  and  Chelidonium  majus. — 
F.  Selle  [Zeilschr.f.  Naturw.,  Halle,  p.  269-320)  finds  stylophorine 
identical  with  chelidonine  (see  E.  Schmidt  A.  J.  P.,  1890,  p.  12.) 
Besides  this  he  isolated  another  alkaloid,  crystallizing  in  needles, 
having  the  melting  point  193— 195 0  C,  and  giving  the  following 
color  reactions  ;  with  Frbhde's  reagent,  (sulphomolybdate)  yellow, 
green,  blue-green,  dark-blue,  blue-green ;  with  Erdmann's  reagent 
H2S04  -f-  trace  of  HN03)  yellow,  bright-green,  becoming  blue  from 
the  circumference,  the  liquid  soon  however  assuming  a  dirty  green 
color;  with  Mandolin's  reagent  (sulphovanadate),  green,  blue-green, 
bright-blue  (lasting  a  long  time),  then  dark  blue-green.  A  body 
similar  to  phelerythrine  or  sanguinarine  was  recognized  by  the 
fluorescence  of  the  ethereal  solution  of  the  free  base  and  the  red 
color  of  its  salts.  This  alkaloid  shows  the  following  reactions:  with 
concentrated  sulphuric  acid  first  yellow,  then  greenish  and  lastly 
red-brown  ;  with  corrosive  sublimate  an  orange-colored  precipitate. 
The  author's  results  of  the  analysis  of  the  root  of  Chelidonium 
