Developments  in  Alkaloidal  Assaying.  {^mS'^™' 
German  Pharmacopoeia  process  0.9  per  cent. 
E.  Merck's  modified  process  0.62-0.7    per  cent. 
Swiss  Pharmacopoeia  process  0.57-0.61  per  cent. 
Therefore,  it  is  evident  that  the  repeated  solution  in  ether  and 
re-evaporation  of  the  alkaloidal  residue  will  free  this  residue  from 
a  certain  amount  of  volatile  basic  substances,  and  Rupp  considers  that 
a  true  amount  of  alkaloids  can  be  estimated  only  by  the  Swiss  Phar- 
macopoeia method. 
The  United  States  Pharmacopoeia  evidently  recognized  the  im- 
portance of  driving  off.  these  volatile  bases,  as  it  requires  in  the  case 
of  belladonna  leaves  and  extract  of  belladonna  the  dissolving  of  the 
residue  of  the  chloroform  extract  of  the  alkaloids  in  3  c.c.  of  ether 
and  subsequent  evaporation  of  this  solution.  However,  this  method 
is  not  followed  all  the  way  through,  as  in  case  of  fluidextract  of 
belladonna  and  fluidextract  of  hyoscyamus  no  such  requirements 
exist.  It  would  be  interesting  to  compare  results  obtained  by  the 
Pharmacopoeia  method  with  those  obtained  by  an  ethereal  extraction 
of  alkaloids  and  also  by  redissolving  the  alkaloids  obtained  by  the 
U.  S.  P.  process  in  ether  and  evaporating  this  solution,  repeating 
this  dissolving  and  evaporation  twice  as  required  by  the  Swiss 
Pharmacopoeia. 
Ribaut  {Bulletin  des  Science  Pharmacolog.,  1908,  No.  9)  inves- 
tigated the  decomposition  of  alkaloids  in  four-year  old  extracts  of 
solanacese.  The  loss  of  alkaloids  expressed  in  percentage  of  the 
original  alkaloidal  contents  of  the  extracts  is  as  follows: 
Extract  belladonna  leaves   3 
"   45 
 22 
"   3 
Extract  hyoscyamus  leaves  69 
Extract  stramonium  leaves  ..31 
"    8 
Extract  belladonna  root   4 
"    3 
i(  <i  u  j 
"   12 
Extract  hyoscyamus  seeds  19 
it                       «                  tc  2c 
"   24 
The  author  ascribes  the  change  in  alkaloidal  contents  to  biolog- 
ical processes  (possibly  action  of  certain  bacteria),  but  does  not  think 
that  it  is  in  any  way  due  to  a  chemical  process. 
