Hyenanchin and other constituents of Hyenache globosa / by Thomas Anderson Henry.

  • Henry, Thomas Anderson, 1873-1958
Date:
1920.]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hyenanchin and other constituents of Hyenache globosa / by Thomas Anderson Henry. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    1/8
    CLXXXII. — Hijenanchin and other Constituents of Hyenanche globosa. By Thomas Anderson Henry. Hyenanche globosa, Lamb (Toxicodendron capense, Thun), is the sole member of a genus of the natural order Euphorbiaceee, and in distribution is confined to South Africa. The name of the plant is said to have originated from the use of the seeds in South Africa as a poison for wild animals, especially hyenas. In 1858 Henkel obtained, by fractionation of a concentrated alcoholic extract of the fruits, a syrupy preparation, which proved to be highly toxic (Arch. Pharm., 1858, 144, 16). Engelhardt subsequently prepared the toxic constituent, which he named hyenanchin, in a crystalline condition, but, beyond stating that it was neither an alkaloid nor a glucoside, made no attempt to characterise it (Arb. pharm. Inst. Dorp., 1892, 8, 5). Shortly afterwards, E. Merck (Merck's Ann. Report, 1895, 123) pointed out that if the observation, made by Henkel and by Engelhardt, that hyenanchin exerts a strychninalike action on the brain, but is without action on the spinal cord, is trustworthy, the substance might be of some therapeutic value as a substitute for strychnine in cases where cerebral action alone is required. For a supply of the plant, the author is indebted to Mr. I. B. Pole Evans, Chief of the Division of Botany, Department of Agriculture, Pretoria. Experimental. The material used included stems (1 kilo.), leaves (2 kilos.), and fruits (4 kilos.). Each of these parts of the plant was extracted separately with chloroform in a continuous, hot percolation apparatus, yielding, in the case of the stem and leaves, a hard, dark green wax, and in that of the fruits a neutral, dark yellow oil, which was not examined in detail. Extraction was continued with hot 95 per cent, alcohol, and the liquid concentrated to a thin syrup, which was poured into five volumes of water, causing the separation of sparinglv soluble tannin containing a small amount of a yellow colouring matter. The filtrate, after purifi¬ cation with lead acetate in the usual manner, was concentrated under reduced pressure to a viscid syrup, which was then extracted repeatedly with an equal volume of ethyl acetate until it was free from bitternass and no longer toxic. The brown, sticky residue left on distilling off the ethyl acetate was dissolved in three times