THE  AMEEIOAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY 
OCTOBER,  1915 
AN  EXAMINATION  OF  SEVERAL  COMMERCIAL  SPECI- 
MENS OF  OPIUM  ALKALOIDS  OR  THEIR  SALTS.* 
\C>  ^  —  I9]g  By^L.  E.  Warren. 
For  several  years  the  question  of  the  synergistic  effects  of  drugs 
has  attracted  considerable  attention,  particularly  in  connection  with 
the  several  alkaloids"  of  opium.  Although  about  twenty-five  alka- 
loids have  been  isolated  from  opium,  the  quantities  in  which  most 
of  the  "  minor  alkaloids  "  exist  in  that  drug  are  so  minute  that 
most  of  the  pharmacologic  experiments  in  synergism  have  been 
carried  out  with  the  alkaloids  which  occur  in  the  largest  amounts;1 
i.e.,  with  morphine,  narcotine,  papaverine,  thebaine,  codeine,  and 
narceine. 
Dr.  D.  I.  Macht,  of  the  Department  of  Pharmacology  of  Johns 
Hopkins  University,  has  conducted  pharmacologic  studies  2  on  some 
of  the  opium  alkaloids.  This  work  was  carried  out  under  a  grant 
from  the  Committee  on  Therapeutic  Research  of  the  Council  on 
Pharmacy  and  Chemistry  of  the  American  Medical  Association. 
In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  Laboratory  of  the  American  Medical 
Association  has  often  shown  that  little-used  drugs  are  likely  to  be 
of  poor  quality,3  it  was  thought  best  to  examine  the  material  used 
by  Dr.  Macht  for  identity  and  purity. 
*  Contribution  from  the  Chemical  Laboratory  of  the  American  Medical 
Association. 
1  According  to  Henry  ("The  Plant  Alkaloids,"  1913,  p.  199),  the  opium 
which  is  used  in  America  and  Europe  is  almost  wholly  of  the  Asia  Minor 
variety  (Smyrna  opium).  The  names  and  formulae  of  the  opium  bases  and 
the  approximate  amounts  in  which  they  occur  in  Smyrna  opium  are  given  in 
Appendix  1. 
*  Jour.  Am.  Med.  Assn.,  64,  477  and  1489  (1915). 
3 Unofficial  Preparations  of  Hydrastis  (Golden  Seal),  Rep.  Chem.  Lab., 
A.  M.  A.,  1,  23,  (1908).  Examination  of  Tablets  of  Bismuth,  Opium  and 
Phenol,  Rep.  Chem.  Lab.,  A.  M.  A.,  1,  28  (1908).    Zinc  Permanganate,  Rep. 
(439) 
