Pharmacographia indica : a history of the principal drugs of vegetable origin met with in British India / by William Dymock, C.J.H. Warden, and David Hooper.
- William Dymock
- Date:
- 1889
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Pharmacographia indica : a history of the principal drugs of vegetable origin met with in British India / by William Dymock, C.J.H. Warden, and David Hooper. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![brown tabular cells; the brown zone seen in Aconite is not present. Chemical composition.—The authors of the Pharrnacographia, upon the authority of Broughton, state that the root contains a well-defined alkaloid of intensely bitter taste, Formula C*6 H7i N'2 O5 obtained from concurrent analyses of a platinum salt. Wright (1878) percolated the powdered dry root with alcohol containing a little tartaric acid, and evaporating the' percolate he obtained ultimately Broughton's alkaloid atisine. This was uncrystallizable, but with hydrochloric acid and gold chloride, he obtained a crystalline hydrodichloride, C22 H31 NO2 HOI, AuCl3, from which he suggests that C22 H31 NO2 may prove nearer the correct formula for atisine than that given by Broughtou. Atis has recently (1879) been examined chemically by Wasowicz. The general results of his investi- gation are : that he found the , root to contain—(1) a fat of soft consistence, probably a mixture of oleic, palmitic, and stearic glycerides; (2) aconitic acid; (3) an acid related to ordinary tannic acid; (4) cane-sugar; (5) vegetable mucilage; (6) pectous substances; (7) atisine, the alkaloid already observed by Broughton, and probably another uncrystallizable alkaloid; (8) starch. The root contained 2-331 per cent, of ash that dissolved partly in water and partially in dilute hydro- chloric acid. Experiments made in administering the alkaloid to rabbits show that it is not poisonous. The quantity in the root is exceedingly small (,§0of ] per cent,). The purified alkaloid is white and uncrystallizable; of its salts, only the hydrochlorate, hydrobromate and hydriodate are crystal- lizable. (Archiv. der Pharmarie, Vol. XL, p. 19.) Atisine when dissolved in sulphuric acid gives a purple colour, a reaction which has been observed by E. Z. Gross with coptine obtained from GopUs trifoliata; and with hydrastine, one of tho alkaloids of Hydrastis canadensis, plants belonging io the same natural order. Commerce— Atis comes into the plains through the principal towns of Northern India; it would appear that in some parts 3](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20385523_0029.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
