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Observations on the action of ergotamine

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NarayanaB_1934redux.pdf (22.15Mb)
Date
1934
Author
Narayana, Basudeva
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Abstract
 
 
The search for the active principle of ergot was started soon after the introduction of the drug in medicine. Tanret (1875) was the first to crystallise ergotinine in a state of purity, and from the mother liquors of the crystalline alkaloid he obtained an active principle but failed to recognise that it was a separate substance and regarded it as amorphous ergotinine. Later, Kobert (1884) and Jacobi (1897) described the active principle as sphacelinic acid and ch.rysotoxine, Kobert (1884) indeed distinguished a second active principle - the amorphous alkaloid cornutine - which he claimed had pharmacological activity of a different kind and was very toxic. This preparation was not, however, chemically pure and owed its activity to a. single alkaloid, a hydrate of ergotinine. Barger and Carr (1907) first isolated a principle in the form of a crystalline salt, from the caustic liquor from which ergotiniñe had been extracted, and named it ergotoxine.. A little later, _raft (1906) recognised that the amorphous substance left after crystallising out the ergotinine was not identical with the latter but was a second alkaloid. He showed that it could be formed from ergotinine and could be reconverted into the latter. He called it hydro-ergotinine. Barger and Carr (1907) showed by analysis that the two alkaloids, ergotinine and ergotoxine, did differ by a mol. of water. Stoll (1920) discovered a third ergot alkaloid, ergotamine, which crystallised readily and had a physiological activity indistinguishable from that of ergotoxine. This alkaloid could be converted into an inactive isomeride ergotaminine. So four distinct alkaloids of ergot have been found out, viz., ergotinine, ergotoxine (which was isolated as hydrate of ergotinine), ergotamine and ergotaminine. Of the two alkaloids, ergotamine and ergotaminine, the latter had no physiological action. These alkaloids were evidently closely related to ergotinine and ergotoxine. Although the two less soluble ones, i.e. ergotinine and ergotaminine, had very slight physiological activity, they could, however, be changed into the active forms ergotoxine and ergotamine. The various pharmacological effects given by the alkaloids, ergotoxine and ergotamine, were of equal intensity within experimental errors end it was thought by some investigators that they were identical. But physical and chemical evidences showed that the four alkaloids were all quite different and had separate existence.
 
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http://hdl.handle.net/1842/33371
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