A.m.  Jour.  Pharm. ) 
April,  1911.  / 
Active  Principle  of  Ergot. 
153 
preparation  on  the  blood  vessels  of  the  frog.  He  found  that 
sclerotinic  acid  excited  uterine  contractions  in  pregnant  animals 
without  injury  to  the  foetus  and  that  it  also  induced  peristaltic  move- 
ments of  the  intestines  and  caused  contraction  of  the  blood  vessels. 
This  action  on  the  intestines  had  been  previously  noted  by  Bonjean. 
As  it  was  still  a  question  as  to  which  of  these  principles  were 
responsible  for  the  action  of  ergot,  Denzel,^^  believing  the  uterine 
action  of  ergot  to  be  due  to  all  the  above  constituents,  made  his 
preparation  so  as  to  contain  both  the  bases  and  the  water-soluble 
principle.  Mauk  found  this  preparation  to  be  efficient  in  many 
cases  of  labor,  but  Scanzoni  and  Bumm,  on  account  of  severe  symp- 
toms which  followed  its  use,  reported  it  unsuited  for  clinical  usage. 
The  most  important  of  the  earlier  chemical  work  was  done  by 
Tanret,^^  who  reported  the  presence  in  ergot  of  an  alkaloid,  which 
he  named  ergotinine.  This  was  probably  identical  with  the  picro- 
sclerotine  of  Dragendorfif  and  Podwissotsky.  Tanret  believed  that 
ergotinine  existed  both  in  a  crystalline  and  in  an  amorphous  con- 
dition, with  a  preponderance  of  the  amorphous  variety.  In  old 
ergot  the  crystalline  form  especially  diminished,  thus  one  kilogram  of 
fresh  ergot  yielded  1.2  gm.  alkaloid,  of  which  one-third  was  in 
the  crystalline  form,  but  after  two  years'  preservation,  a  specimen 
of  ergot  gave  0.4  gm.  only  of  alkaloid,  one-fifth  of  which  was  crystal- 
line ergotinine.  He  considered  the  amorphous  alkaloid  merely  a 
molecular  modification  of  the  crystalline  form.  This  latter  increased 
the  solubility  in  alcohol  of  the  crystalline  variety.  He  obtained 
ergotinine  by  extracting  crude  ergot  with  boiling  alcohol  and  then 
making  the  alcohol  alkaline,  and  after  evaporation,  shaking  the 
residue  with  ether.  On  the  addition  of  a  citric-acid  solution  the 
alkaloid  separated  from  the  ethereal  solution  and  was  afterward 
purified.  It  gave  an  odor  of  methylamine  when  treated  with  strong 
caustic  hydrate.  On  treating  ergotinine  with  concentrated 
H2SO4,  in  the  presence  of  a  little  alcohol,  this  alkaloid  gave  a 
yellowish-red  color  which  passed  into  a  blue.  Ergotinine  solutions 
showed  a  peculiar  fluorescence  which  was  compared  with  that  of 
quinine.  Ergotinine  was  sold  under  the  name  ergotininum  citricum 
solutum.  Besides  ergotinine,  Tanret  also  claimed  the  presence  of 
a  cholesterine-like  body,  ergosterin,  a  base  containing  sulphur  ergo- 
thioneine,  and  a  volatile  alkaloid.  A  volatile  coniine-like  base 
had  been  previously  noted  by  Winckler.  The  ergosterine  of  Tanret 
is  probably  the  same  as  Wiggers'  waxy-like  cerin  and  the 
cholesterin  of  Ludwig.^^ 
