Am.  Jour.  Pharrn. 
Oct.,  1886. 
Ptomaines  and  Leucoma'ines. 
497 
PTOMAINES  AND  LEUCOMAINES. 
By  A.  Gautier. 
The  author  gives  a  resume  of  the  work  done  on  these  alkaloids. 
From  the  muscle  of  large  animals,  he  has  succeeded  in  obtaining  five 
new  alkaloids,  (leucomames),  perfectly  definite  in  composition  and 
crystalline  form,  which,  when  administered  to  animals,  act  more  or 
less  powerfully  on  the  nerve  centres,  inducing  sleep,  and  in  some  cases 
causing  vomiting  and  purging,  in  a  manner  similar  to  the  alkaloids  of 
snake  poison,  but  less  powerfully  than  the  ptomaines.  These  bases  are 
formed  during  life  and  occur  in  the  urine,  saliva,  venom,  and  various 
glandular  secretions ;  but  the  author  has  more  particularly  studied 
their  occurrence  in  muscle. 
Xanthocreatinine,  C5H10N4O,  is  the  most  abundant  of  the  bases  ob- 
tained from  muscle.  It  consists  of  light  sulphur-yellow  spangles, 
with  a  slightly  bitter  taste.  The  crystals  are  very  soluble  in  water 
and  soluble  in  hot  alcohol.  They  slowly  blue  reddened  litmus  paper 
and  redden  the  blue  paper.  The  hydrochloride  is  obtainable.  The 
platinochloride  is  very  soluble,  and  crystallizes  in  long  sheaves.  The 
aurochloride  is  difficult  to  obtain  in  the  crystalline  form.  The  sub- 
stance closely  resembles  creatinine.  This  resemblance,  together  with 
its  yellow  color,  is  indicated  in  its  name. 
Crusoereatinine,  C5H8N40,  is  decidedly  alkaline  to  test-paper,  and 
gives  a  soluble  non-deliquescent  hydrochloride,  and  a  soluble  platino- 
chloride. The  slightly  soluble  aurochloride  occurs  in  crystalline 
grains.  This  base  neither  precipitates  zinc  from  its  acetate  nor  mer- 
cury from  its  nitrate,  but  it  precipitates  alumina  from  alum  solutions. 
It  strongly  resembles  creatinine. 
Amphicreatinine,  C9H19N704,  occurs  in  small  quantity  only.  It  is  a 
feeble  base,  forming  a  non-deliquescent  crystalline  hydrochloride. 
Its  platinochloride  is  soluble  in  water,  insoluble  in  alcohol,  and  forms 
lozenge-shaped  plates.  Its  aurochloride  forms  very  soluble,  micro- 
scopic, hexahedral  and  tetrahedral  crystals. 
Pseudoxanthine,  C4H5N50. — The  alcoholic  mother-liquors  from  the 
preceding  compounds  are  freed  from  alcohol,  the  residue  is  taken  up 
with  water,  and  treated  with  copper  acetate  in  slight  excess.  On 
heating,  a  precipitate  is  obtained  from  which  the  copper  is  separated 
by  means  of  hydrogen  sulphide.  On  filtering  the  boiling  solution,  a 
light  sulphur-yellow  powder  is  obtained.     This  substance  readily 
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