Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Dec,  1892. 
Notes  on  Solanaceons  Bases. 
641 
NOTES  RELATING  TO  THE  SOLANACEOUS  BASES.V 
By  Dr.  O.  Hesse;. 
[Concluded  from  p.  595.] 
(5)  Scopolamine. — This  name  'has  been  provisionally  applied  by  E. 
Schmidt2  to  the  base,  which  he  considers  to  be  distinct,  obtained  by  Bender 
from  Scopolia  atropoides,  and  supposed  by  him  to  be  hyoscine.  Schmidt  has 
shown  that  the  composition  of  the  base  in  question  is  represented  by  the 
formula  C17H21N04;  that  it  forms,  with  hydrobromic  acid  or  with  gold 
chloride,  crystallizable  salts,  having  respectively  the  composition  represented 
by  the  formulas  C1  vH21N04,HBr  -f  3H20  and  C1 7H21N04,  AuCl4H.  He  has 
also  shown  that  this  base  is  met  with  in  the  ordinary  hyoscine  hydrobromide 
of  commerce. 
The  melting  point  of  the- above-mentioned  gold  salt  was  found  by  Schmidt 
first  2140,  afterwards  2100  to  2120,  and  subsequently  by  Schutte  2080.3  Lastly, 
the  mother-liquor  from  which  the  commercial  hydrobromide  has  been  obtained, 
was  found  to  yield  a  more  laminar  gold  salt,  melting  at  2040. 
More  recently,  Schmidt4  has  stated  that  the  commercial  hyoscine  hydrobro- 
mide consists,  almost  exclusively,  of  a  salt,  the  base  of  which  he  proposes  to  term 
scopolamine  ;  and  that  this  base,  when  treated  with  baryta  water,  is  converted 
into  atropic  acid,  and  a  crystallizable  base,  C8H1 3N02,  which  has  the  form  of 
colorless  needles,  melting  at  no°. 
But,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  ascertain,  commercial  hyoscine  hydrobro- 
mide is  nothing  else  than  the  true  hyoscine  salt,  which  gives  a  gold  salt  melt- 
ing at  1980,  as  found  by  Ladenburg  and  quite  recently  also  by  Liebermann  and 
Limpach.  Consequently,  the  different  observations  of  Schmidt  and  Schutte 
on  the  gold  salt,  as  compared  with  those  of  Ladenburg,  Liebermann,  Limpach 
and  myself,  can  only  be  due  to  accidental  circumstances. 
It  has  already  been  shown  that  the  rotatory  power  of  hyoscine  in  alcoholic 
solution  is  almost  entirely  destroyed  by  the  addition  of  very  little  caustic  soda? 
two  drops  of  a  30  per  cent,  solution  being  sufficient  to  produce  that  effect  in  25 
cc.  of  the  solution  of  hyoscine.  It  is  therefore  conceivable  that  the  hyoscine 
may,  in  the  course  of  its  preparation,  have  undergone  some  such  alteration  as 
hyoscyamine  does.  Indeed,  hyoscine,  after  having  been  submitted  to  such 
treatment,  has  been  found  to  give  a  gold  salt  crystallizing  in  extended  laminae. 
But  its.  melting  point  of  2000  was  only  somewhat  higher  than  that  of  the  salt 
containing  the  normal  base.  An  explanation  of  the  above  difference  cannot 
therefore  be  furnished  as  suggested. 
Schmidt5  has  recently  published  the  investigation  of  scopolamine,  of  which 
preliminary  notices  had  previously  appeared. 6  The  memoir  is  dated  October 
1891  ;  but  it  contains  additions  made  in  the  course  of  the  present  year,  and  a 
lAnnalen  der  Chemie,  vol.  271,  p.  100  ;  reprinted  from  Phar.Jour.  and  Trans.,  September 
10  and  17.  * 
-  Apotheker  Zeitung,  1890,  No.  30. 
3  Mittheilungen  aus  dem  pharmaceutisch-chemischen  Inst  it  ut  der  Universitdt  Marburg,  xii, 
p.  623. 
4  Chem.  Centralblatt,  1892,  p.  704. 
5  Archiv  der  Pharmacie,  ccxxx,  p.  207. 
6  Apotheker  Zeitung,  1890,  p.  186,  and  1891,  p.  522. 
