Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Nov.,  1888. 
Alkaloids  in  Human  Urine. 
567 
equal  to  5*99  per  cent.,  and  after  a  further  forty-eight  hours  equal  to 
5*91  per  cent.    The  temperature  of  heating  reached  110°  C. 
The  correspondence  of  the  value  found  with  that  calculated  for  the 
value  C17H19NO3-I-H2O,  is  evidently  such  as  to  leave  no  doubt  as  to 
the  correctness  of  that  formula,  and  it  may  therefore  be  assumed  that 
the  excess  of  water  which  Dieter ich  found  depended  only  upon  ac- 
cident. 
ALKALOIDS  IN  HUMAN  UKINE.^ 
By  J.  L.  W.  Thudichum. 
The  urine  was  mixed  with  5  per  cent,  of  sulphuric  acid  previously 
diluted  with  twice  its  own  volume  of  water,  and  the  alkaloids  were 
precipitated  by  phosphomolybdic  or  phosphotungstic  acid.  The  pre- 
cipitate was  washed,  treated  with  barium  hydroxide  and  barium  car- 
bonate, care  being  taken  to  avoid  an  excess  of  hydroxide,  and  the  deep 
red  solution  thus  obtained  was  filtered.  If  ferric  chloride  is  added  to 
the  red  liquid,  it  produces  a  bulky  precipitate,  which  contains  uro- 
chrome,  the  coloring  matter  of  the  urine  in  combination  with  iron. 
This  urochrome  may  be  isolated  in  several  different  ways,  and  then 
treated  with  sulphuric  acid,  or  the  precipitate  may  be  treated  directly 
with  the  acid.  In  either  case,  the  product  answers  to  the  description 
given  by  Proust  in  1881.  It  is  a  deep,  violet-red,  bulky  precipitate, 
which  when  treated  with  ether  yields  a  resin  and  a  mixture  of  omicho- 
lin  and  omicholic  acid.  The  portion  insoluble  in  ether  consists  of  a 
red  compound,  uropittin,  soluble  in  alcohol,  and  a  black  resin,  urome- 
lanin. 
Omicholin  has  approximately  the  composition  C24II38NO5,  and  is  a 
red,  resinous  substance,  insoluble  in  ammonia,  but  soluble  in  ether  and 
alcohol.  Its  solution  shows  a  bright  green  fluorescence,  and  gives  an 
absorption-spectrum  consisting  of  a  band  between  D  and  E. 
Omicholio  acid  has  the  composition  C5H22NO4,  and  is  also  a  resinous, 
red  substance  soluble  in  ether  or  alcohol,  forming  a  solution  which 
shows  a  green  fluorescence  and  gives  an  absorption-band  between  D 
and  E.  This  band  is,  however,  narrower  than  the  band  given  by 
omicholin.  Omicholic  acid  is  soluble  in  ammonia,  and  is  reprecipitated 
by  acids. 
Uropittin  was  not  obtained  pure.    It  is  always  mixed  with  one  or 
^  Compt.  rend.,  cvi.,  1803 — 1806 ;  reprinted  from  Jour.  Chem.  Soc,  October,  p. 
1119. 
