From ergot to "Ernutin" : an historical sketch.

Date:
[1908]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: From ergot to "Ernutin" : an historical sketch. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    67/76 (page 57)
    gives the following percentages of cornutine in the samples taken by him: Spanish, 0*29; Russian, o'i8; German, 0*15. Chemical History The somewhat mysterious origin of ergot appears to have attracted many investigators, but, owing mainly to lack of knowledge at the period in which they worked, the earlier observers only succeeded in isolating some of its inert constituents. The physiologically active preparations they were able to obtain were simply crude resinous mixtures, which their discoverers regarded as acids or alkaloids according to their methods of preparation. Pettenkofer, when examining ergot in 1814, obtained some crystals which he thought resembled those of morphine. Vanquelin next made a chemical examina- tion in 1816, and he was followed by Combes, who, in 1826, asserts that he found starch, but could not separate any active principle; and down to about 1830 nothing was known of its chemical composition. The first reliable investigation of ergot was made in 1831, by Wiggers, who found it contained 35 per cent, of oil and a crystalline wax-like substance, which he termed cerin ; he also proved that wig-g-ers' starch and hydrocyanic acid were absent, and tions described a resin, soluble in alcohol but insoluble in ether and water, which he termed ergotin. From feeding experiments on cocks he concluded that the toxic properties of ergot were wholly due to the resin. In 1840, the Pharmaceutical Society of Paris offered a prize for the best essay on ergot of rye, and a research was made by Bonjean, who stated that he found that ergot owed its activity to two Marches principles, one of which he contended was a powerful poison and the other a salutary medicine. The former he called Oil of Ergot and the latter