The plant alkaloids / by Thomas Anderson Henry.

Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The plant alkaloids / by Thomas Anderson Henry. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

    81/506 (page 67)
    A trolactyltrnpeine {'pseudo&iropmo), a -Hydroxy-a - phenylpro - pionyltropeine, C17H23O3N. Considerable interest attaches to this substance since atrolactic acid is isomeric with tropic acid. It forms brilliant needles, m.p. 119°, and is more strongly mydriatic than homatropine {see below). a-Hydroxyd^-plt^nylpropionyUropeine, C17H23O3N, isomeric with the foregoing, crystallises in rosettes of needles, m.p. 89°-90°. It is more strongly mydriatic than homatropine {see below). Atroglyceryltropnne, C\7H2304N, crystallises in rectangular oblong plates, m.p. 124°-125°, is less mydriatic than the foregoing alkaloids, but more active than homatropine. Benzoyltropeine, Ci5Hig02N, crystallises in shining plates, m.p. 58°, and is mydriatic, but less so than homatropine. Phenylglycollyltropeine {Homatropine), C46H21O3N. This is the most important of the artificial tropeines and is largely used in medi- cine in the form of its salts as a substitute for atropine. It crystallises in transparent prisms, m.p. 95-5° to 98-5°. The hydro- bromide, colourless crystalline powder, m.p. 213-8°, the hydro- chloride, and the salicylate are used in medicine. They are freely soluble in water. The aurichloride, B.HAUCI4, forms prisms, ind is sparingly soluble in water. Homatropine is a powerful mydriatic, but its effect is more transient than that of atropine, ft is also less toxic. Homatropine is distinguished from atropine by not giving the violet coloration on treatment with nitric acid, followed by alcoholic potassium hydroxide. Constitution op Tropine. The problem of assigning to this Dase a constitution capable of affording a satisfactory explanation )f its many and diverse reactions is one of great difficulty, and has mly been successfully solved by the long-continued investigations )f many chemists, prominent among whom are Ladenburg, Merling, ind Willstatter. The complexity of the problem may be better inderstood when it is recalled that in some reactions tropine cehaves as a comparatively simple pyridine derivative, yielding iuch substances as dibromopyridine and ethylpyridine ; in others