NARCOTINE, an alkaloid which forms from 5 to 6 per cent of the opium from Asia Minor and a larger proportion of the opium from India and Persia. It has the chemical formula and acts as a narcotic poison. It may be prepared as follows: The morphine content of the opium is first dissolved out with water — in which narcotine is almost entirely insoluble. The residue is then ex hausted with dilute hydrochloric acid, forming narcotine hydrochloride, The alkaloidal bases that the extract contains are precipitated by the addition of caustic potash. The precipi tated bases are then redissolved, and the solu tion is treated with oxalic acid to precipitate the papaverine that it contains, after which the filtered solution is treated with ammonia to throw down the narcotine. The precipitate so obtained is purified by recrystallization from alcohol. A simpler method, but more expen sive, is to boil the opium with ether in which the narcotine dissolves. Narcotine was the first
alkaloid obtained from opium, of which it con stitutes from 1 to 8 per cent by weight. It is almost insoluble in cold water, moderately soluble in alcohol and in ether, and readily soluble in chloroform. It crystallizes in trimet ric prisms, or in radiating needle-like forms, which melt at 345° F. Aqueous solutions of the alkaloid are neutral, and solutions in other menstrua are but feebly alkaline. Narcotine (unlike the other alkaloids that opium contains) appears to exist in opium in the free state, and not in the form of a salt. Its salts do not crystallize readily, their aqueous solutions are acid, and are decomposed when evaporated, with separation of free narcotine. A larger dose of narcotine is required to produce the same effect as a given quantity of morphine or codeine.