492  Gleanings  from  the  German  Journals.  {Am'o^\m!am' 
alkaloidal  percentage:  Young  roots,  Spring  0-127  per  cent.,  Sum- 
mer 0-452  per  cent,  Autumn  0.458  per  cent.;  old  roots,-  Spring, 
0-174  per  cent.,  Summer  0-358  per  cent,  Autumn  0-280  per  cent. 
The  alkaloid  from  the  young  roots  consisted  entirely  of  hyosciamine, 
from  the  old  roots  chiefly  of  hyosciamine  with  very  small  quanti- 
ties of  atropine.  In  the  leaves  of  the  uncultivated  belladonna,  col- 
lected in  Spring  and  Autumn,  much  hyosciamine  with  little  atropine 
was  found  ;  the  ripe  fruit  contained  only  atropine.  The  keeping  of 
dried  belladonna  root  does  not  produce  any  change  of  the  pre-exist- 
ing alkaloid,  an  apparently  young  root  kept  for  10  years  in  a  store 
containing  only  hyosciamine.  The  process  by  which  these  results 
were  obtained  is  not  published,  but  it  is  stated  that  its  reliability 
was  established  by  adding  hyosciamine  and  a  mixture  of  hyoscia- 
mine and  atropine  to  powdered  glycyrrhiza  and  isolating  the  alka- 
loids ;  no  change  of  the  alkaloids  had  taken  place. 
In  stramonium  seeds  much  hyosciamine  with  small  quantities  of 
atropine  and  hyoscine  was  found. 
Of  Duboisia  leaves  two  specimens  were  examined,  one  of  which 
contained  chiefly  hyosciamine,  the  other  only  hyoscine. 
In  the  potato  plant,  in  Solanum  nigrum,  in  Lycium  barbarum 
and  in  Nicotiana  tabacum  traces  of  mydriatic  alkaloids  were  found, 
which  possessed  certain  resemblances  to  the  belladonna  alkaloids ; 
these  will  be  more  fully  investigated. — Apoth.  Ztg.,  1890,  5 II. 
Tritopine. — In  working  up  large  quantities  of  mother  liquor 
resulting  in  the  extraction  of  morphine,  E.  Kauder  obtained  a  crys- 
tallized alkaloid  differing  from  all  the  alkaloids  isolated  by  O.  Hesse 
and  which  is  named  tritopine.  This  alkaloid  towards  sulphuric  acid 
shows  resemblance  to  laudanosine  and  laudanine.  It  has  the  com- 
position C^H54N2Or  Its  salts  are  easily  soluble  in  water  and  alco- 
hol.— Arch  der  Pharm.,  1890,  419. 
Chelidonium  majus. — There  are  present  in  this  plant  besides  cheli- 
donine  and  chelerythrine  three  other  alkaloids  called  «-homochelido- 
nine  C21H21N05,  ^-homochelidonine  C21H21N05  and  protopine  (?). 
a-homochelidonine  and  /9-homochelidonine  have  like  formulas  but 
differ  towards  reagents,  while  the  latter  with  concentrated  sulphuric 
acid  gives  an  immediate  violet  coloration  the  former  is  dissolved  with- 
out color  but  after  some  time  becomes  yellowish  ;  they  differ  from 
chelidonine  C20H19O5  by  an  additional  CH2.  The  fifth  alkaloid  pro- 
topine (?)  in  all  its  properties  resembles  protopine  obtained  by 
