The simpler natural bases / by George Barger.

  • George Barger
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The simpler natural bases / by George Barger. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    case at least, a confusion with phenyl-ethylamine seems completely ex¬ cluded. Compare further the section on p. 48. Phenyl-ethylamine does not accompany phenyl-alanine in seedlings (Schulze [1906]), but with regard to the higher plants it should be mentioned that Le Prince [1907] has isolated a volatile base CgHnN from the European mistletoe (Viscum album) and that Crawford [ 1911 ] attributes the pressor action of the U.S.P. extract of the American mistletoe (Phoradendron flavescens) to the presence of a base, C7HnN or CsHnN, which he thinks is perhaps identical with phenyl- ethylamine. This base requires further investigation ; the presence of phenyl-ethylamine may possibly depend on the fact that the mistletoe is a semi-parasite. Although phenyl-ethylamine has not been found in any fresh fungus, Reuter [1912] obtained it from Boletus edulis by aseptic autolysis. Derivatives of phenyl-ethylamine have been found in various essential oils; thus phenyl-ethyl-alcohol c6h5. ch2 .ch2oh occurs in rose oil and is also produced from phenyl-ethylamine by yeast (Ehrlich); phenyl-acetonitrile, C6H5. CH2. CN, was found by Hof¬ mann [1874] hi the essential oil of Nasturtium officinale, and phenyl- ethyl-Atf-thiocyanate is present in the oil from the root of Reseda according to Bertram and Walbaum [1894], and yields phenyl-ethyl¬ amine on hydrolysis. Possibly phenyl-ethylamine is an intermediate stage in the formation of all three substances from phenyl-alanine. p-Hydroxy-phenyl-ethylamine, OH . C6H4. CH2. CH2. NH2. This amine was first obtained by Schmitt and Nasse [1865] by heating tyrosine, when the following change occurs o CH2. CH (NH2) COOH = HO CHa.CH3.NH2 + C02. HO p-Hydroxy-phenyl-ethylamine was subsequently isolated from auto- lysed pancreas by Emerson [1901] and from a prolonged peptic digestion of egg-albumin by Langstein [1901, 1902]. It seems pretty certain that in these experiments bacterial action was not completely excluded (see p. 10). Gautier and Mourgues [1888] isolated the base from the mother liquors obtained in the putrefaction of cod-livers (in the old process of making cod-liver oil). Gautier also obtained in small quantity a lower homologue C7H7NO and a higher one C9HuNO and named the three bases “ tyrosamines The last two do not, however, appear to have been sufficiently well characterised. p-Hydroxy-phenyl-ethylamine is fairly abundant in various kinds of cheese. It was found by Van Slyke and Hart [1903] in Cheddar
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