Sempervirine from Gelsemium Root

The authors give a method of separating “Sempervirine” from a mixture of the combined alkaloids of gelsemium root, by means of converting the alkaloid into the nitrate which is quite insoluble in water and practically insoluble in solution containing sodium nitrate. Methods of preparing the free alkaloid and some of its salts, a description of these products, and their reactions with the usual alkaloidal reagents are given. In the second part of the paper the authors describe gelseminine which, they claim, consists of at least two alkaloids. They further suggest a method for separation of the various alkaloids of the root and the results of some preliminary physiological experiments carried out with sempervirine, which have shown that the salt apparently has no immediate toxic effect, but its definite toxicity is stated.— (Editor).