Chemistry Of Alkaloids Research Articles

The Alkaloids—Chemistry and Physiology. Volume II

The Alkaloids—Chemistry and Physiology. Volume II

The Technology and Chemistry of Alkaloids. Frank E. Hammerslag

<i>The Technology and Chemistry of Alkaloids</i>. Frank E. Hammerslag

The technology and chemistry of alkaloids

The technology and chemistry of alkaloids

Experimental physiological studies with lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD-25).

STOLL1studied the effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD-25) in both psychotic and normal subjects. Condrau2and others reported their results of administration of lysergic acid diethylamide to various types of subjects and in general confirmed the findings of Stoll. For details of the chemistry of the ergot alkaloids, we refer to a more recent, comprehensive work by Stoll.3It should be mentioned in passing that all lysergic acid alkaloids have lysergic acid as a base. This substance is a multiple, active, polycyclic, nitrogenous carboxylic acid, which so far has not been synthesized. The natural ergot alkaloids containd-lysergic acid and may be divided into two groups— the ergotamine-ergotoxine group, on the one hand, and the ergonovine group, on the other. In the former groupd-lysergic acid is combined with a manifold peptid, whereas the latter group comprises the mono acid amides of thed

The Technology and Chemistry of Alkaloids

The Technology and Chemistry of Alkaloids

A Plant Alkaloid Handbook

The Alkaloids Chemistry and Physiology. Edited by R. H. F. Manske and H. L. Holmes. Vol. 1. Pp. viii + 525. (New York: Academic Press, Inc., 1950.) 10 dollars.

Chemistry of Alkaloids

Chemistry of Alkaloids

CURARE‐LIKE ACTION OF POLYMETHYLENE BIS‐QUATERNARY AMMONIUM SALTS

CURARE‐LIKE ACTION OF POLYMETHYLENE BIS‐QUATERNARY AMMONIUM SALTS

An Essay in Correlation Arising from Alkaloid Chemistry*

THE incident which I wish to describe is of peculiar interest, because it transpires that the behaviour of a natural product can only be explained in the light of knowledge comparatively recently acquired and never previously brought to bear in the analysis of a structural problem.

Sir Robert Robinson: First Paracelsus Medallist

A DELIGHTFUL function took place at the Dorchester Hotel on August 6,when the Swiss Ambassador, in an after–luncheon speech, presented to SirRobert Robinson, F.R.S., Waynflete professor of chemistry in the University of Oxford, the Paracelsus Gold Medal of the Swiss Chemical Society. This is the first occasion upon which the award has been made, and it is gratifying that the Swiss chemists should recognize in this manner Sir Robert's pre–eminence in the scientific world. His versatility is such that he has enriched every branch of organic chemistry, but it is perhaps as a master of the synthetic method that he has gained special fame. His outstanding gifts in this direction became evident early in his career, when in 1917 he effected a synthesis of tropinone, noteworthy on account of its extraordinary novelty and simplicity. The concept upon which this and other alkaloid syntheses was based was a direct outcome of a comprehensive theory of biogenesis of plant products which was contributed to the Chemical Society in the same year, and which marked an epoch in alkaloid chemistry.

Hanbury Medallist of the Pharmaceutical Society

AT the May meeting of the Council of the Pharmaceutical Society the secretary reported that the adjudicators of the Hanbury Medal have decided to make the award to Dr. Harold King, F.R.S., of the National Institute for Medical Research. Dr. King, has been engaged in research on drugs since 1913, and apart from important work on synthetic arsenical preparations, has made outstanding contributions to the chemistry of alkaloids and sterols. Of his work on alkaloids special mention may be made of that on the constitution of hyoscine, the stereochemistry of the cinchona alkaloids and the exhaustive investigation of the sources, nature and constitution of the alkaloids present in the various kinds of curare and in the plants known or surmised to be used in the preparation of that drug. In 1932, in association with Rosenheim, Dr. King suggested a new structure for the cholarie ring system which is now generally accepted as a basis for the representation of a number of physiologically active substances, such as the oestrogenic hormones, carcinogenic hydrocarbons and cardiac glucosides. The Hanbury Medal, a memorial to Daniel Hanbury, who died in 1875, is awarded periodically for “high excellence in the prosecution or promotion of original research in the natural history and chemistry of drugs”. The adjudication committee comprises the presidents for the time being of the Chemical, Linnean and Pharmaceutical Societies, the chairman of the British Pharmaceutical Conference and one pharmaceutical chemist.

Chemistry of the Opium Alkaloids.

Chemistry of the Opium Alkaloids.

Bakerian Lecture. —The molecular structure of strychnine and brucine

The present position in the development of the chemistry of the strychnos alkaloids has been reached only after much stumbling by the way, and, in view of the confusion which anything but the most attentive study of the whole of the literature must beget, the time seemed ripe for a survey of the salient facts and the statement of the argument which can be based upon them. Strychnine was isolated from the seeds of Strychnos Nux-vomica by Pelletier and Caventou in 1817 and brucine by the same chemists in 1819; the composition of these bases was correctly ascertained by Regnault.

News and Views

PROF. ROBERT ROBINSON, the new Waynflete professor of chemistry in the University of Oxford, may be aptly described as the most brilliant pupil of his illustrious predecessor, the late Prof. W. H. Perkin. His association with Prof. Perkin began in Manchester, and he remained in communion with his former teacher throughout an academic Odyssey which led him in turn to chairs in the University of Sydney (1912), Liverpool (1915), St. Andrews (1921), Manchester (1922), and London (1928). A long-continued collaboration with Prof. Perkinwas directed mainly towards the solution of outstanding problems in the chemistry of alkaloids; and the researches of Perkin and Robinson on narcotine, harmine, harmaline, etc., have become classical. Prominent among Prof. Robinson's independent work in this group is a masterly paper, published in 1917, detailing possible ways in which many of the familiar alkaloidal skeletons may be conceived to originate in the plant by means of comparatively simple reactions. The elegant simplicity which is a characteristic feature of Prof. Robinson's synthetic work is illustrated by his production of tropinone through the direct interaction of succindialdehyde, methylamine, and acetone—a veritable ‘test-tube reaction’ which supplanted a laborious synthesis of some twenty steps.