Am,iu^"iS6arm'}         Strophanthus,  A  Heart-Poison.  405 
ON  STROPHANTHUS,  A  HEART-POISON. 
The  pharmacological  action  of  this  poisonous  African  plant  was 
mentioned  by  Pelikan,  of  St.  Petersburg,  in  a  brief  communication 
to  the  Academy  of  Sciences  of  Paris,  in  1865,  and  in  the  same  year 
by  Drs.  Hilton  Fagge  and  Gallois  in  a  note  appended  to  a  paper  on 
heart  poisons.  Prof.  T.  R.  Fraser  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Royal 
Society  of  Edinburgh,  1869,  communicated  the  results  of  the  chemical 
composition  and  of  the  action  of  the  drug,  and  in  1877  Hardy  and 
Gallois  (See  Am.  Jour.  Phar  ,  1877,  p.  402)  described  some  of  the 
properties  of  the  crystalline  principle  isolated  by  Fraser,  and  named  it 
strophantin.  In  a  paper  read  before  the  British  Medical  Association 
in  1885,  Fraser  stated  that  this  crystalline  body  has  a  strongly  bitter 
taste,  a  feeble  acid  reaction,  is  readily  soluble  in  water  and  in  rectified 
spirit,  practically  insoluble  in  ether,  benzol  and  benzin,  not  precipi- 
tated by  the  ordinary  reagents  for  alkaloids,  free  from  nitrogen,  and 
when  heat'  d  with  dilute  sulphuric  acid  yields  glucose  and  strophanti- 
din,  which  is  insoluble  in  water,  very  soluble  in  alcohol  and  has  a 
strongly  bitter  taste.  Strophantin  is  obtained  from  the  alcoholic  ex- 
tract of  the  seed  by  dissolving  in  water,  washing  the  solution  with 
ether  and  evaporating  the  liquid  at  a  low  temperature.  The  seeds 
contain  from  8  to  10  per  cent,  of  strophantin  and  smaller  proportions 
are  present  in  the  leaves  and  bark  of  the  plant. 
In  the  same  paper  referred  to  before,  Prof.  Fraser  gives  the  results 
of  his  observations  on  the  action  of  strophantin  which  is  the  same  as 
that  of  the  seeds.  A  tincture  of  strophanthus  was  prepared  from  2J 
ounces  of  the  powdered  seeds  and  2  pints  (imperial)  of  rectified 
spirit,  and  occasionally  the  fat  abundantly  present  in  the  seeds,  was 
previously  removed  with  ether.  The  tincture  was  given  in  doses  of 
from  4  to  20  minims,  twice  or  three  times  daily,  and  strophantin  was 
injected  subcutaneously,  the  quantity  being  1-50  grain.  In  the  latter 
case  the  beneficial  influence  upon  the  circulation  of  a  single  injection 
was  ascertained  to  persist  for  eight  days  at  least.  Comparative  exper- 
iments made  upon  the  separated  frog-heart  showed  that  solutions  of 
digitalin  (made  by  Morson)  of  1  part  in  from  100,000  to  4000  parts 
produced  characteristic  changes  in  the  heart's  action,  but  were  not  suf- 
ficiently strong  to  kill  the  heart  within  two  hours ;  and  that  a  solution 
of  strophantin,  1  in  6,000,000,  produced  characteristic  changes  in  the 
heart's  action,  and  complete  stoppage  of  the  contractions  in  extreme 
