Ergotoxine and some other constituents of ergot / by George Barger and H.H. Dale.

  • George Barger
Date:
[1907]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Ergotoxine and some other constituents of ergot / by George Barger and H.H. Dale. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Historical Though ergot occupied the attention of a number of chemists in the eighteenth century and the earlier part of the nineteenth— Vauquelin (1), Pettenkofer (2)—the first careful investigation was made by Wiggers (3) in 1831, at a time when the long controversy as to the therapeutic utility of the drug was drawing to a close. Wiggers found 35 per cent, of oil, a crystalline wax-like substance, which he termed cerin, and which is probably identical with the 4 ergosterine ’ of Tanret, a new sugar, later found to be identical with trehalose, and phosphates. He also proved that, contrary to the statements of some of his predecessors, starch and hydrocyanic acid are absent, and described a resin, soluble in alcohol but insoluble in ether and in water, which he termed 4 ergotin.’ From feeding experiments on cocks he concluded that the toxic properties of ergot are wholly due to this resin. The therapeutic activity he regarded as due to a water-soluble substance, on account of the good effects of liquid (aqueous) extracts when used in medicine—an opinion which still finds many supporters. Considering the state of chemical knowledge at the time, Wiggers’ analysis was so complete that it satisfied chemists for a generation. With the exception of Bonjean (4), who in 1842 described a method for preparing an aqueous extract, which he likewise called ergotin, and which has been adopted in some form or other in most pharma- copoeias, no substantial advance was made till Wenzell (5), in 1864, obtained two fixed alkaloids from ergot, 4 ergotine ’ and 4 ecboline.’ This discovery led to researches by Manassewitz (6), Herrmann (7), and Ganser (8), who for the most part confirmed Wenzell’s results. The whole question, however, was still in a state of great confusion, for in 1874 Buchheim (10) attributed the activity of ergot not to any specific substance, but to the 4 putrid and septic substances ’ as a whole. In striking contrast to this work is that of Tanret (12), who, a year later, made the first great step by discovering a crystalline alkaloid which he prepared in a state of undoubted purity, and named ergotinine (to distinguish it from the resinous 4 ergotines ’ of his predecessors). Tanret’s alkaloid has been found by all subsequent
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