Abstract
It was demonstrated 1 that rabbit's serum destroys atropine (dl-hyoscyamine) and its isomers, levo- and dextro-hyoscyamine, at different rates and it was suggested that this accounts for quantitative differences of the systemic action of these alkaloids in different species. In the following report levo-, dextro- and racemic hyoscine∗ were studied as to their destruction by egg white and rabbit's serum.
The determination was performed in the same manner as described in the previous paper. In the first series 20 mg. of the alkaloids were dissolved in 2 cc. of water, mixed with 8 cc. of fresh egg white and incubated for 0, 3, and 6 hours at 38°C, three experiments being done for each compound and each series. At the end of the incubation period the alkaloids were isolated and determined by means of the Vitali reaction. It was found that with all 3 alkaloids without incubation all material added could be recovered within the limit of error which is ±5%; after 3 hours of incubation 21.9% were destroyed and after 6 hours 37.5%, the 3 isomers being destroyed at the same rate. It is interesting that under identical conditions atropine and its isomers were destroyed at the'same ratio, namely ±5%, 21.5%, and 37%, the 3 isomeric forms showing also no differences in regard to their destruction.
Similar experiments were performed with rabbit's serum in the same proportion and with the precautions discussed in the previous paper. In this series also 3 experiments were made for each alkaloid and each time interval, which all gave identical results. After 6 hours 100% of the levo-, 68.3% of the dextro-, and 81% of the racemate were destroyed, which agrees with the values found in the atropine series, 100% for levo-, 57% for dextro-hyoscyamine and 81% for atropine (dl-hyoscyamine).
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.