Gelsemium : a study that embodies the recent work of L. E. Sayre together with fragments of a paper read by him before the American Pharmaceutical Association, Richmond, Virginia, 1910.
- Sayre, Lucius E. (Lucius Elmer), 1847-1925
- Date:
- 1911
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Gelsemium : a study that embodies the recent work of L. E. Sayre together with fragments of a paper read by him before the American Pharmaceutical Association, Richmond, Virginia, 1910. Source: Wellcome Collection.
6/12 page 6
![was then transferred to ammoniated water and allowed to macerate for several hours. The liquid was transferred to a filter and again washed as before. The insoluble precipitate was carefully dried in a vacuum desiccator. It weighed 0.4752 Gm., thus indicating a distinct separa- tion. One of these separated products (insoluble in ammonia) we desig- nate as gelseminine (B,), the other (B,). The ammoniacal filtrate was separated into three portions; the first portion passing through the precipitate and filter was of a pinkish color; the second portion was less colored, and the third portion color- less. These three solutions were separately dried in a vacuum desic- cator, which was supplied with acurrent of air made dry by a battery of Woulfe bottles containing sulphuric acid, and finally a U-tube of cal- cium chloride, a partial vacuum being maintained. Practically dry products were thus obtained ; Gelseminine, B, (Gelsemoidine [?]). The first residue® was brittle and of a reddish color. The second residue was of a lighter yellow, and the third was practically colorless. All three were alkaloidai—the third, colorless residue, was also alka- loidal and contained insoluble material. The total weight of the alka- loid soluble in ammonia was 1.1584. (B,): The precipitate insoluble in ammonia was first dissolved in dilute sulphuric acid, transferred to a separatcr, made alkaline with ammonia; the alkaline solution washed with chloroform, which readily extracted the colored alkaloid. The chloroform solution was transferred to a second separator, and after washing with distilled water was ex- tracted with dilute hydrochloride acid. This last washing removed prac- tically all of the color and the alkaloid. This was placed in a vacuum desiccator and dried the same as the former solution. The weight was 0.4572 Gm. It should be noted here that the alkaline aqueous reddish solution (B,) when washed with chloroform, yielded practically no color or alka- loid, the coloring matter as well as alkaloid remaining in the alkaline fluid. On the other hand, the alkaloid from B,, with its red color was readily transferred to chloroform when its solution, made alkaline, was shaken out by that solvent. Examination of crude Gelseminine (C). Treated with absolute alcohol, this was found to be entirely soluble. 1.435 Gms. of Gelseminine (C) containing 10 per cent of moisture was taken, precipitated by ammonia, and succeeded by the same treat- ment as that to which the former product (B) was subjected. The pre- cipitate insoluble in ammoniacal water weighed 0.0885 Gm. (5.81 per penis, and had the same characteristics as the former insoluble pre- cipitate. r PHYSIOLOGICAL EXPERIMENTS. To study the effect of the three different principles (gelse- mine, ‘‘gelsemoidine” (?) and gelseminine) on the circulation and to make at least a rough comparison of their physiological activity, a standard solution of each was made so that each +, of acc. represented 0.001 Gm. of the alkaloid. Fractions of these solutions, or portions of a millegram of the alkaloid, or alka- loidal salt, were injected into the lymph sac of a frog. These were of about the same body weight; their heart-beats, at the be- ginning of the experiment, were about the same—60 beats per minute. The quantity of the alkaloid, or its solution, was va- ried so as to produce a given result—noting the quantity as well as the time to produce this. In the case of Gelsemine and Gel- 5This was necessarily contaminated with a small proportion of NH, Cl.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b33440864_0006.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
