The Plant Alkaloids

Abstract

THE alkaloids of plants have long offered a most interesting and attractive, if always difficult, field of research to both chemists and physiologists. The subtle chemistry of the vegetable cell evolves no objects more fascinating to study than these “vegetable alkalis,” as Sertürner first termed them; bodies usually of highly complex chemical structure, and often of appalling potency in their physiological effects. Of the problems which they offer, one in particular—that of their chemical constitution-has received a large amount of attention during the last two or three decades, and much progress has been made with it. How much is perhaps scarcely realised until the results are collected and collated, as in the book under notice, in such fashion that a bird's-eye view of the whole field can be readily obtained. Then the reader notes that “alkaloids of unknown constitution” form only one group out of nine, and that group not a remarkably large one; whilst in the case of several members even of this group—for example, the aconites, colchicum, and ergot—knowledge of their structure is beginning to accumulate.

The Plant Alkaloids.

By Dr. T. A. Henry. Pp. vii + 466. (London: J. and A. Churchill, 1913.) Price 18s. net.