THE  AMEEIOAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY 
APRIL,  ipii 
A  REVIEW  OF  THE  CHEMICAL  WORK  DONE  ON  THE 
ACTIVE  PRINCIPLE  OF  ERGOT. 
By  Alfred  C.  Crawford, 
Pharmacological  Laboratory,  Leland  Stanford,  Junior,  University. 
Biological  tests  have  shown  that  different  ergots  vary  much 
in  their  activity ;  some  are  apparently  devoid  of  any  medicinal  or 
poisonous  action.  This  inactivity  has  not  yet  been  proved  to  be 
associated  with  definite  macroscopic  peculiarities  of  ergot,  or  with 
peculiarities  of  the  host  upon  which  it  grows.  Ergot  grown  on 
rye  is  what  is  officinally  referred  to  under  the  term  ergot. 
The  biological  method  of  testing  ergot  has  been  much  discussed 
in  recent  years.  For  a  long  time  the  majority  of  investigators  rested 
content  in  the  belief  that  the  principle  which  produced  the  bluing 
of  the  cock's  comb  was  the  one  to  which  the  therapeutic  action  of 
ergot  was  due,  and  that  on  this  basis  the  drug  could,  at  least 
approximately,  be  standardized  for  clinical  usage.  Later  investiga- 
tions tended  to  discredit  this  view,  suggesting  that  the  principle 
or  principles  which  induce  uterine  contractions  may  not  necessarily 
be  those  which  cause  bluing  of  the  cock's  comb,  and  that  the  latter 
may  have  a  subordinate  role  in  medicine. 
Owing  to  the  peculiar  chemical  difficulties  inherent  to  this 
subject,  our  knowledge  of  the  active  principles  of  ergot  has  been 
based  largely  on  so-called  pharmacological  isolations,  which  have 
not  answered  strict  chemical  requirements.  To  form  any  accurate 
idea  as  to  the  methods  for  the  standardization  of  ergot  it  is 
necessary  to  know  something  of  the  historical  development  of  the 
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