2§6 
Gelsemine  and  Crystalline  Salts. 
j  Am.  Jour.  Phann. 
\      May,  1883. 
A  RESEARCH  ON  THE  ALKALOID  GELSEMINE  ANB 
SOME  OF  ITS  CRYSTALINE  SALTS.^ 
By  a.  W.  Gerrard,  F.  C.  S. 
The  alkaloid  under  notice  is  yielded  by  the  Gelseminum  sempervirenSy 
or  Carolina  jasmine.  The  natural  order  of  the  plant  is  doubtful^  being 
placed  by  De  Candolle  in  the  Logoniacse,  by  Decaisne  in  the  Apocy- 
nacese.  The  drug  found  its  way  into  regular  medical  practice  through 
the  eclectics,  and  is  now  official  in  the  United  States  Pharmacopoeia. 
In  this  country  it  has  attained  a  good  reputation  for  the  treatment 
of  toothache  and  neuralgia.  The  part  of  the  plant  used  is  the  root^ 
from  which  are  prepared  a  tincture  and  liquid  extract,  also  a  resin 
called  gelsemin.  A  detailed  account  of  the  history,  characters  and 
composition  of  the  plant  will  be  found  in  a  valuable  paper  by  E.  M. 
Holmes,  in  the  "  Pharmaceutical  Journal,^^  December  18,  1875. 
The  first  communication  within  my  knowledge,  having  reference  to 
the  chemical  constituents  of  gelseminum  root,  was  contributed  by  Kol- 
lock  to  the  "American  Journal  of  Pharmacy,"  1855,  p.  203,  the  principal 
facts  elucidated  being,  that  it  contained  gelseminia,  dry  resin,  volatile 
oil,  fatty  resin  and  a  yellow  coloring  matter.  This  was  followed  in 
1869,  Avith  a  paper  by  Eberle,  who  examined  the  woody  portion  of  the 
root  for  alkaloid,  and  states,  "  The  wood  of  the  root  can  be  safely 
asserted,  from  careful  experiment,  to  be  free  from  alkaloid."  This 
observation  I  have  corroborated.  In  1870  an  important  addition  was 
made  to  our  knowledge  of  its  constituents  by  Dr.  Wormley,  who  dis- 
covered the  presence  of  an  interesting  highly  fluorescent  body,  which 
he  named  gelseminic  acid.  At  the  same  time  he  described  the  physical 
characters  and  chemical  reactions  of  the  alkaloid  gelsemine. 
In  1876  Professor  Sonnenschein  communicated  to  the  "Berichte  d. 
deutschen  Gessellschaft,  Jahr.  ix.,"  the  results  of  analyses  of  gelseminic 
acid  and  the  alkaloid  gelsemine.  For  the  alkaloid  was  found  the  form- 
ula C11H19NO2,  and  for  its  hydrochloride  (CiiHi9N02)2HCl.  No  simple 
crystalline  salts  were  obtained  by  either  Sonnenschein  or  Wormley. 
For  gelseminic  acid  Sonnenschein  gave  the  formula  CgoHg^Ojg  and 
claimed  its  identity  with  esculin.  This  claim  has  since  been  contro- 
verted by  Wormley. 
Five  years  ago,  I  prepared  some  gelsemine  for  physiological  use^ 
iRead  at  an  Evening  Meeting  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Society,  Februry  7^ 
1883. 
