Anagyris.

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Anagyris. Anagyris foetida, L. (Fam. Leguminosae.)—Hardy and Gallois have separated from Anagyris foetida an alkaloid, anagyrine. Parthiel and Spasski found that the crude alkaloid could be separated into cytisine, C₁₁H₁₄N₂O and anagyrine, C₁₅H₂₂N₂O; the latter is not obtainable in crystalline form; it forms a brittle, resinous-like mass easily reducible to a yellowish powder, but rapidly absorbs moisture and becomes sticky. It volatilizes at 245° C. (473° F.). (Arch. d. Pharm., 244, No. 1, 1906, 20.) It forms, however, a crystalline hydrobromide.

Anagyrine hydrobromide, which has the formula C₁₄H₁₈N₂O₂HBr, occurs in colorless or faintly yellow crystals and soluble in water. Anagyrine, according to Loewi (A. I. P., vol. vii, p. 66), is physiologically related to lobeline, acting primarily upon the nerve endings as a paralyzant and later upon nerve centers, but having no direct influence upon the muscles. It lessens the cardiac frequency and decreases the force of the systole in the frog, but is said in the mammal to have very little influence upon the blood pressure, death occurring through respiratory paralysis.

The Dispensatory of the United States of America, 1918, was edited by Joseph P. Remington, Horatio C. Wood and others.