Pharmacographia : a history of the principal drugs of vegetable origin met with in Great Britain and British India / by Friedrich A. Fluckiger and Daniel Hanbury.

Friedrich August Flückiger

Date:: 1874

Credit: Pharmacographia : a history of the principal drugs of vegetable origin met with in Great Britain and British India / by Friedrich A. Fluckiger and Daniel Hanbury. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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$RA^ UNCULACEjE. dissolved in an acid and then jji-ecipitated by ammonia, the precipitate treated with boiling water coheres and becomes plastic. Amorphoiis Pseucl-aconitine, boiled in water, fuses, becomes sticky, and adheres to the sides of the vessel. Crystalline Aconitine is far more soluble m weak aqueous ammonia^ than its allied alkaloids. The proportions may be roughly stated tlms:— cryst. aconitine, 1 part in 500 parts; amorph. aconitine, 1—1000; cryst. pseud-aconitine, 1—2500 ; amorph. pseud-aconitine, 1—1500. Aconitine and pseud-aconitine are both deposited in crystals from aqueous ammoniacal solutions. Such a solution of crystalline aconitine speedily undergoes spontaneous decomposition; that of amorphous aconitine is more stable, while similar solutions of pseud-aconitine are but little prone to change. Crystalline aconitine forms numerous crystallizable salts: crystalline pseud-aconitine appears incapable of affording crystallizable salts. The crystals of aconitine are described by Groves as being entirely different in form from those of pseud-acohitine. According to Duquesnel those of the former are rhombic or hexagonal tables, sometimes short four-sided prisms. Duquesnel who has studied with attention the proporties of crystal- line aconitine obtained from A. Najpellus grown in Europe, describes it as anhydrous, nearly insoluble in water even at 100° C. When bbtained by precipitation from one of its salts, it is in the form of an amorphous, pulverulent hydrate. The crystals of the alkaloid dissolve in alcohol, ether, acetic ether, benzol, and especially in chloroform which is their best solvent; the solutions have an intensely bitter taste followed by a sensation of pricking and tingling. Crystalline aconitine is freely soluble in dilute acids, easily affording crystallizable salts (especially a nitrate), provided the solution is perfectly neutral; it also forms crystalline com- pounds with iodine and bromine. Pseud-aconitine is but little soluble in ether (1 in 100), chloroform (1 in 230), or spirit of wine in the cold, but dissolves more freely in those liquids when heated, crystallizing in large prisms from boihng saturated solutions. Solution, of pseud-aconitine has a burning but not a bitter taste. In 1857, Hiibschmann 2 announced the discovery in the root of A. NapelhLs of a new base which he called Napellinc. It is described as a pulverulent, white, amorphous substance, having a bitter and burning taste, easily soluble in water, chloroform, or alcohol, but insoluble in ether or benzol. The substance has an alkaline reaction, and is a strong base. Hlibschmanu subsequently (1867) expressed his belief that ' napelline was identical with one of the alkaloids he had obtained in ■ 1865 from the root of A. Lycoctonum L.,^ and had described Acolyctiiu. Groves (1873) has prepared a somewhat similar body from Nepal aconite, but has not yet determined its identity or otherwise with Hiibschmann's napelline—in fact he has expressed the opinion that European and Indian aconite have each its own napelline. Another alkaloid occurring in aconite was announced in 1864 by T. and H. Smith, of Edinburgh,* who named it Acondla, but afterwards 1 A solution containing \\ per cent, of marked, crystallizable alkaloid Lycoctonine ammonia. obtained from that plant, is not known to Fliickiger, in Pharm. Jmrn. Aug. 13, occur in any of the blue-flowered aconites. 1870. 121. * Pharm. Journ. v. (1864) 317. 2 Hiibschmann's distinct and well-$