Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ) 
April,  1911.  / 
Active  Principle  of  Ergot. 
i6i 
mately  the  same  molecular  weight.  Barger  and  Dale  object  to  this 
determination  in  glacial  acetic  acid  and  believe  Vahlen's  formula 
incorrect. 
Vahlen  noted  that  on  heating  these  crystals  the  reaction  resembled 
that  with  leucin,  an  amino-acid  which  Buchheim  had  previously 
found  in  ergot.  According  to  Vahlen,  when  0.194  gram  of  clavin 
was  injected  into  the  vein  of  a  cock,  it  produced  no  bluing  of 
the  comb;  it  is  probably  devoid  of  toxicity,  as  2.6  grams  per  kilo 
injected  subcutaneously  into  mice  produce  no  symptoms  save  some 
dulness.  According  to  him,  the  second  constituent  could  be  repre- 
sented by  the  formula  C5H11O2N,  although  its  structure  is  as  yet 
unknown,  and  he  believes  that  it  is  the  physiologically  active  con- 
stituent of  clavin.  This  is  claimed  on  the  basis  that,  as  clavin  is 
active  and  leucin  is  inactive,  the  second  constituent  must  be  the 
active  one. 
Van  Slyke  has  noted  that  the  properties  of  clavin  are  almost 
identical  with  those  of  the  isomorphous  mixture  of  leucin  and 
valin."  The  main  difference  is  in  its  melting  point.  He  cor- 
roborates Barger  and  Dale  in  proving  the  presence  of  leucin  in 
clavin,  but  indicates  the  presence  of  valin,  which  these  investigators 
had  at  first  overlooked.  Van  Slyke  ^"  suggests  that  a  mixture 
of  leucin  and  valin  should  be  tested  physiologically.  Shortly  after 
Van  Slyke's  paper  appeared,  Barger  and  Dale  reported  the  presence 
of  valin  in  clavin  along  with  asparaginic  acid.  It  is  interesting  to 
note  that  Barger  admits  that  some  of  the  activity  in  ergot  is  due  to 
iso-amylamin  which  may  be  derived  from  leucin. 
The  evidence  at  present  is  against  clavin  being  the  active  prin- 
ciple of  ergot.  Barger  and  Dale  suspect  that  the  activity  of  clavin 
is  due  to  some  admixed  p.  oxyphenylethylamin. 
Kraft  has  studied  the  ergot  question  and  has  proved  that  the 
bodies  described  by  Robert  and  also  those  of  Jacobj  are  not 
chemical  individuals.  He  isolated  two  bases  which  he  considered 
to  be  alkaloids.  One  of  these  is  identical  with  the  crystalline  base 
of  Tanret,  so  that  Kraft  retained  the  name  of  ergotinin  which 
Tanret  had  originally  used.  According  to  Kraft  its  empirical 
formula  is  C35H39O5N5.  The  second  base  received  the  name  hydro- 
ergotinin,  as  it  was  considered  to  be  a  hydrated  form  of  ergotinin, 
therefore  its  formula  would  be  C,.,5H4iN,,0„.  These  alkaloids  were 
obtained  from  an  ethereal  extract  by  shaking  it  with  a  tartaric- 
acid  solution,  then  freeing  the  bases  with  soda,  again  shaking 
