Proceedings of the Association of Economic Biologists ordinary meeting held at 2.30 p.m. on May 13th, 1927, in the Imperial College of Science ... : discussion on plant alkaloids.

  • Association of Economic Biologists. Meeting (1927 : London, England)
Date:
[1927?]
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Credit: Proceedings of the Association of Economic Biologists ordinary meeting held at 2.30 p.m. on May 13th, 1927, in the Imperial College of Science ... : discussion on plant alkaloids. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    room for difference of opinion according as to whether the arranger of the inspection is an economic biologist, a pure chemist, a pharmacologist, a physiologist, a phy¬ sician, a grocer, a tobacconist or an artist in poisoning. Although it is possible that not all of these are represented here, there is probably enough of different interests to make the selection somewhat of a problem. Being unfortunately precluded from adopting one of the bright modern methods of simul taneously raising money and gaining information by inviting you to participate on the usual terms in an “Alkaloid Ballot,” I have fallen back upon a method of the B.B.C. who occasionally broadcast a programme arranged by an outsider according to his individual taste. So as one who is, or rather was, a mere systematic botanist, I have made out my own list with an equitable disregard of everyone else’s interest. The question of the relative importance of alkaloids is as far as I am concerned evaded by passing the plants along in the order of the natural families to which they belong. At the risk of trespassing on Dr Henry’s province, it may be mentioned here that when, as the slides are passing along, only one alkaloid is mentioned in connection with a plant it is not to be inferred that the plant contains no others. Further, when roots, seeds, bark or other parts are mentioned as the source of alkaloids, it means merely that the alkaloids are usually or most conveniently extracted from such parts. Finally such expressions as root or seed or bark and suchlike are extremely crude indications of how the protoplasm of a plant disposes of the alkaloids it produces in the course of its metabolism. Lantern slides were then shown of the following plants, the lecturer commenting upon each. 1. aconitum napellus L. (Ranunculaceae), the familiar Monkshood of our gardens, is taken as the representative of a genus widely distributed over the Northern Temperate Zone. Most of the species store alkaloids, chiefly in the root, and several of these alkaloids are very poisonous. The typical alkaloid is Aconitine. 2. berberis aristata DC. (Berberidaceae) is a spiny evergreen shrub, a native of the Himalayas and the hills of Southern India and Ceylon and cultivated in this country as an ornamental shrub. The thin brittle root-bark more particularly yields Berberin, an alkaloid that occurs in a considerable number of other species, some belonging to the same genus, and others to different families. 3. papaver somnieerum L. (Papaveraceae), the opium poppy, is probably a native of S.E. Europe and Asia Minor, but cultivated in Asia Minor, Persia, India still to a small extent, and China. The milky juice, which is collected by incising the capsules, is a fount of different alkaloids, over a dozen occurring in the stream. The chief one is of course Morphine. 4. camellia thea (Ternstroemiaceae). The tea plant is native to Assam and extensively cultivated in that province, the Eastern Himalayas, Southern India, Ceylon, Java, China and elsewhere in the Tropics and Sub-tropics. It contains the most widely consumed of all alkaloids in the form of caffeine, which is usually extracted from the leaves. 5. theobroma cacao L. (Sterculiaceae). The cocoa plant is a small tree, a native of the northern parts of South America and up to as far north as Mexico. Extensively
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