Am.  Jour.  Pharm, 
Pec,  1892. 
Notes  on  Solanaceous  Bases. 
643 
point  of  the  platinum  salt  is  essentially  lower  than  that  of  the  tropine  salt.  It 
is  true  Kraut1  has  stated  that  the  platinum  salt  of  tropine  has  different  char- 
acters according  to  the  mode  in  which  the  splitting  up  of  atropine  is  effected  ; 
but  even  that  circumstance  would  not  be  of  much  assistance,  because  the 
volatile  bases  from  tropine  and  from  atropamine,  as  well  as  their  platinum  salts, 
were  prepared  under  precisely  the  same  conditions  and  compared  with  each 
other.  So  long  as  the  accuracy  of  these  observations  is  not  experimentally 
disproved,  the  base  obtained  by  the  splitting  up  of  atropamine  must  be 
regarded  as  being  distinct  from  tropine.  In  order  to  obviate  erroneous  concep- 
tions in  respect  to  this  matter  I  therefore  designated  that  base  /3-tropine. 
I  have  further  examined  the  small  remnant  of  platinum  salt,  as  follows  :  After 
three  times  recrystallizing  from  water  the  melting  point  of  the  salt  was  found 
to  be  1870.  A  portion  dissolved  in  water  was  decomposed  with  sulphuretted 
hydrogen,  the  clear  filtered  solution  evaporated,  the  crystallized  residue  dis- 
solved in  water,  mixed  with  caustic  soda  and  the  base  shaken  out  with  chloro- 
form. The  clear  chloroform  solution  gave  on  evaporation  long  colorless  crys- 
tals of  /3-tropine,  which  covered  the  sides  of  the  vessel  like  ice  crystals.  In 
moist  air  they  soon  deliquesced.  Dried  in  the  exsiccator  the  base  melted  at  6o° 
to  6i°.  Heated  to  530  in  the  exsiccator  it  soon  vaporizes  ;  it  is  readily  soluble 
in  water ;  on  adding  platinum  chloride  to  the  solution  and  evaoorating,  the 
platinum  salt  crystallizes  out  in  the  original  form  and  melts  at  1860  with  decom- 
position. 
For  the  sake  of  comparison,  I  have  prepared  tropine  from  atropine,  and 
operated  with  its  chloroform  solution  under  exactly  the  same  conditions 
described  above.  The  crystals,  obtained  on  evaporating  the  solution,  did  not 
present  more  than  scanty  indications  of  the  ice  crystal  form  ;  but  were  flat  and 
often  spear-shaped  needles  that  were  apparently  quite  as  hygroscopic  as  those 
of  /3-tropine.  On  the  other  hand,  it  was  found  that  tropine  vaporizes  but  very 
little  under  the  same  conditions. 
The  difference  between  these  two  forms  of  tropine  consist,  therefore,  so  far  as 
can  be  at  present  made  out,  chiefly  in  the  melting  points  of  the  platinum  salts 
and  the  greater  volatility  of  /3-tropine. 
(7)  BeiJyADONNIne. — Under  this  name  Hiibschmann2  understands  a  base 
the  sulphate  of  which  is  contained  in  the  mother  liquor  left  in  the  preparation 
of  atropine  sulphate.  The  belladonnine  was  separated  from  the  salt  by  alkali, 
and  was,  like  the  sulphate,  amorphous.  Merck  understands  belladonnine  to 
be  the  base  from  the  mother  liquor  which,  in  the  preparation  of  atropine,  gives 
no  further  crystallizable  base.  He  is  also  of  opinion  that  the  crude  belladon- 
nine examined  by  Diirkopf, 3  had  been,  in  part  only,  derived  from  belladonna 
root,  on  account  of  the  considerable  amount  of  hyoscine  it  contained.  Kraut4 
showed  that  belladonnine  is  but  little  decomposed  by  boiling  with  baryta  water, 
and  he  thus  pointed  out  a  mode  of  obtaining  this  base  in  a  state  of  purity.  By 
the  splitting  up  of  a  base  purified  in  that  way,  Merling  stated  that  he  had 
obtained  tropine  ;  but  his  investigation  was  limited  to  the  determination  of  the 
1  Ibid.,  cxxxiii,  p.  97. 
2  Schweizerische  Zeitschrift  fur  Pharmacie,  1858,  p.  123. 
3  Berichte,  xxii,  p.  3183. 
4  Annalen,  cxlviii,  p.  239  and  Berichte,  xiii,  p.  165. 
