The fate of parahydroxyphenylethylamine in the organism / by A.J. Ewins and P.P. Laidlaw.

  • Ewins, Arthur James.
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: The fate of parahydroxyphenylethylamine in the organism / by A.J. Ewins and P.P. Laidlaw. 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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    to liver perfusions. We found that the base wa.s transformed into parahydroxyphenylacetic acid by the rabbit’s liver but that the rate of destruction of the base was considerably slower than that of the pntnary amine. Thus 200 mgr.s. perfused for two hours yielded only 65 mgrs. of acid. We have already shown that the yield of acid from pai-ahydroxy- phenyleth3’lamine is about 100 mgrs. per hour. (2) Parahydroxyphenylethyldimethylamine or hordenine. With this substance we have performed two sets of experiments (a) Feeding experiments. (b) Perfusion experiments on rabbits’ livers. In both sets of experiments the results are very similar. I'O gm. hordenine sulphate was given by mouth in a gelatine capsule to a dog. No symptoms were noticed beyond nausea and one slight attack of vomiting half an hour after the administration. The urine of the next 36 hours gave a vivid Millon reaction. This was found to be due to (1) a small amount of ether soluble acid, which was too small to isolate and identify but which was in all probjibility oxyphenylacetic acid ; and (2) unchanged base. We were able to isolate with some difficulty 50 mgrs. of base in crystalline form. This merely accounts for about 7 ®/o of the hordenine administered; the remainder apparently disappeared. {b) Perfusion of the liver gives very similar results. A trace of ether soluble acid, probably oxyphenylacetic acid, a somewhat small proportion of unchanged luise, and considerable destruction. Kxp. 500 mgrs. of hordenine sulphate were perfused through a cat's liver for 2J hours. The perfusion fluid was acidulated, boiled, filtered, and evaporated to dryness. The residue was extracted with water until the extracts no longer gave a Millon reaction, the aqueous solution acidified with HCl, and completely extracted with ether. The ethereal solution on evaporation yielded a very smalt quantity of residue from which was isolated a milligram or so of a substance giving an intense Millon reaction. This substance was most probably oxyphenylacetic acid. The aqueous solution after extraction with ether was made alkaline with sodium carbonate and thoroughly extracted with ether. The ethereal solution was taken to dryness and extracted with benzene and this on evaporation yielded 36 mgrs. of crystalline hordenine. From the foregoing experiments it seems clear that whereas the amino base ja-hydroxyphenylethylamine is readily converted by the organism and more especially by the liver, into oxyphenylacetic acid, the corresponding methylamino base is much less readily metabolised in this direction, and with the dimethylamino base the difficulty is still further increased and little or no change takes place along this path.