The method which Wright and Luff adopted to extract and separate these alkaloids from the root of V. album and V. viride, essentially consisted in exhausting with alcohol, to which a little tartaric acid has been added, filtering, distilling off the alcohol, dissolving the residue in water, alkalising with caustic soda, and shaking up with ether. The ethereal solution was next separated, and then washed with water containing tartaric acid, so as to obtain a solution of the bases as tartrates: in this way the same ether could be used over and over again. Ultimately a rough separation was made by means of the different solubilities in ether, pseudo-jervine being scarcely soluble in this medium, whilst jervine, veratralbine, veratrine, and cevadine are very soluble in it.
The yield of Wright and Luff’s alkaloids was as follows:—
TABLE SHOWING THE ALKALOIDS IN THE VERATRUMS.
| V. album. Per Kilo. | V. viride. Per Kilo. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jervine, | 1 | ·3 | grm. | ·2 | grm. | |
| Pseudo-jervine, | ·4 | „ | ·15 | „ | ||
| Rubi-jervine, | ·25 | „ | ·02 | „ | ||
| Veratralbine, | 2 | ·2 | „ | Traces. | ||
| Veratrine, | ·05 | „ | Less than ·004 grm. | |||
| Cevadine, | Absent. | Less„han | ·43 | 4 „ | ||
From whence it appears that V. album has only a very small quantity of veratrine, that it is almost absent in V. viride; on the other hand, V. viride contains a fair quantity of cevadine, an alkaloid absent in V. album.
Besides the six principles enumerated, G. Salzberger has recently separated two other crystalline substances, to which he has given the names of protoveratrine and protoveratridine, and Pehkschen has also separated a ninth substance, to which he has given the name of veratroidine.
The formulæ of the nine bodies which have been separated from hellebore root are as follows:—
| Melting-point. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Veratrine, C37H53NO11, | ... | |||
| 2. | Cevadine, C32H49NO9, | 205°-206° | |||
| 3. | Protoveratrine, C32H51NO11, | 245°-250° | |||
| 4. | Pseudo-jervine, | - | C29H43NO7 (Wright), | 299°-300° | |
| C29H49NO12 (Pehkschen), | ... | ||||
| 5. | Veratralbine, C28H43NO5, | ... | |||
| 6. | Protoveratridine, C26H45NO8, | 265° | |||
| 7. | Rubi-jervine, | - | C26H43NO2 (Wright and Luff), | 236° | |
| C26H43NO2 (Salzberger), | 240°-245° | ||||
| 8. | Jervine, C26H37NO32H2O, | 237°-239° | |||
| 9. | Veratroidine, C32H53NO9, | 149° | |||
Three of these alkaloids possess powerful sternutatory properties, the least quantity applied to the nostrils exciting sneezing; the three are veratrine, cevadine, and protoveratrine.