The alkaloids of ergot. [Pt. I] / by George Barger and Francis Howard Carr.
- George Barger
- Date:
- 1907
Licence: In copyright
Credit: The alkaloids of ergot. [Pt. I] / by George Barger and Francis Howard Carr. 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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![*4, n? / XXXV11.—Thf -Alkalgids of Ergot. Bv George Barger anfi'FRANCis Howard Carr. The great medicinal importance of ergot has led to numerous chemical researches, which have mostly, however, resulted in little that is definite, possibly owing to the fungoid nature of the plant. As in the •case of many drugs, the therapeutic properties of ergot have been attributed to the presence of one or more alkaloids, but several investigators have of late years denied to the ergot alkaloids any part in the specific activity of the drug. The problem is further com- plicated by the extremely small alkaloidal content (about OT per •cent.); this makes the preparation of even a moderate supply of material very expensive. The first to establish the presence of fixed alkaloids in ergot was Wenzell {Amer. J. Pharm., 1864, 36, 193), who in 1864 applied the names ecboline and ergotine to two impure resinous preparations giving alkaloidal reactions. His observations were confirmed by Ganser {Arch. Pharm., 1870, 194, 195). To Tanret, however, belongs the credit of having first obtained from ergot a well-defined crystalline alkaloid, which he named ergotinine in order to distinguish it from the resinous ergotine of Wenzell and others {Compt. rend., 1875, 81, 896 ; 1878, 86, 888; Ann. Chim. Phys., 1879, [v], 17, 493). From the mother liquors of this base Tanret obtained a further yield of alkaloid in an amorphous form. Since this amorphous alkaloid in other respects closely resembled the crystalline, he called it amorphous ergotinine. Tanret’s crystalline alkaloid has been found by all subsequent observers. According to Blumberg {Inaug. Diss. Dorpat, 1878) it is probably identical with the picrosclerotine of Dragendorff and Podwyssozki {Arch. expt. Path. Pharm., 1876, 6, 153); the term sclero- cry^talline used by Podwyssozki {Pharm. Zeiischr. fur Russland, 1883, 22, 396) is also merely another name for Tanret’s alkaloid, and the same applies to the secaline of Jacobj {Arch. expt. Path. Pharm., 1897, 39, 104). According to Robert {Arch. expt. Path. Pharm., 1884,18, 316) crystalline ergotinine has but slight if any physiological activity, so that when he obtained an impure alkaloidal resin of great toxicity he proposed for it the new name cornutine. According to Tanret {J. Pharm. Chim., 1885, [v], 11, 309 ; 1894, [v], 30, 229), Keller {Schweiz. Wochenschr. Chem. Pharm., 1891, 32, 121; 1896, 34, 65), and Meulenhoff {Per. Nederl. Maatsch. Pharm., 1899, [viii], No. 1 ; Ned. Tijdschr. Pharm. 1900, 12, 225, 257), cornutine does not occur as such in ergot, but is an artificial decomposition product of ergotinine, formed by the acid used in its extraction.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22407479_0005.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
