Am-^i,i^m'}     Alkaloids  of  Aconitum  Napellus.  207 
ON  THE  ALKALOIDS  OF  TRUE  ACONITUM  NAPELLUS.1 
By  Professor  Dunstan  and  Mr.  John  C.  Umney. 
From  the  Research  Laboratory  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Society. 
The  authors  have  examined  the  alkaloidal  constituents  contained 
in  the  roots  of  the  true  Aconitum  Napellus.  The  plants  were 
grown  by  Mr.  E.  M.  Holmes,  at  the  instance  of  the  British 
Pharmaceutical  Conference.  The  process  used  for  the  extraction 
of  the  alkaloids  was  such  as  to  preclude  the  possibility  of  the  occur, 
rence  of  hydrolysis  or  other  decomposition  of  the  alkaloids.  It: 
consisted  in  percolating  the  roots,  dried  at  a  low  temperature  and 
finely  powdered,  with  cold  rectified  fusel  oil  (b.  p.  ioo°-I32°)  and 
extracting  the  alkaloids  from  the  solution  by  agitation  with  water 
acidified  with  one  per  cent,  of  sulphuric  acid.  Resin  was  removed 
by  extracting  the  acid  solution  with  chloroform,  and  the  liquid  was 
then  made  just  alkaline  with  dilute  ammonia  and  extracted  with 
ether,  which  removed  a  considerable  quantity  of  alkaloid  but  left 
in  solution  a  further  and  smaller  quantity,  which  was  subsequently 
dissolved  out  by  agitation  with  chloroform. 
The  alkaloid  soluble  in  ether  was  obtained  as  a  gum-like  mass 
incapable  of  crystallization.  By  conversion  into  hydrobromide  it 
was  separated  into  a  crystallizable  and  uncrystallizable  salt 
The  crystalline  hydrobromide  was  identified  as  the  salt  of  aconi- 
tine,  the  crystalline  and  highly  toxic  alkaloid  already  described 
by  one  of  the  authors  and  Dr.  W.  H.  Ince.  The  rotatory  power  of 
the  pure  hydrobromide  in  aqueous  solution  was  ascertained  to  be 
Md —  29'65>  a  result  which  agrees  well  with  that  recorded  in  the 
paper  above  referred  to.  As  some  doubt  exists  with  reference  to 
the  solubility  of  aconitine  in  water,  it  was  carefully  determined  with 
this  pure  specimen.  The  mean  of  two  determinations  was  1 
gramme  in  4,431  grammes  of  water  at  220.  Jurgens  had  previously 
recorded  the  far  greater  solubility  of  1  in  745  at  the  same  tem- 
perature. 
The  non-crystalline  hydrobromide  furnished  an  alkaloid  resem- 
bling a  gum  in  appearance.  It  dissolved  in  ether  and  alcohol,  but 
only  sparingly  in  water.  The  aqueous  solution  was  alkaline  to 
litmus  and  was  very  bitter,  but  it  did  not  give  rise  to  the  tingling 
1  The  substance  of  a  paper  communicated  to  the  Chemical  Society,  on 
March  3,  1892  ;  reprinted  from  Phar.  Jour,  and  Trans.,  March  5,  p.  729. 
