◆ SpookStack

9 f'Juna ' 197" IMPOST ; CIi BY 18747a September 10, 1955 Attn* -Dr fifcg -.v— • My letter to the .‘|gg May 2 constituted a brief ; progress report of my work^on-the * ned So? "P iule"! These ^ tests will take a considerable por o bfcalJied from the n?iule n on hand, however. Dr .•tflWWWWMWM*'' of your a. :r ' organization has indicated that he will make more of the drug * available tome, Y/hen I obtain this new supply of the drug I . plan to extract and purify a sufficiently large quantity of the glycoside so that w’nenit is subjected to splitting, the avlycone which is obtained will constitute a fraction large • . enough to be tested in detail. To date the aglycono has oeen "•'''’‘"'-"."Sbtafned in minute traces as a dark tar. The only tests_ which v - it has been possible to carry out on this material are those ——£. ‘ using alkaloidal reagents. ^These tests have Indicated the presence ... r ‘ tested for nitrogen using the-sodium fusion^technique . Quantitative ' micro Kjeldah! determinations indicate 0..70& nitrogen. Assuming the oresence of one nitrogen in the molecule and assuming^ that ^ the elvcoside is pure, this percentage of nitrogen would indicate -. a molecular weight of 2x10®. Due to the -•-glycoside in the solvents usually employed: in the Hast method for molecular weight determinations, the molecular weight o* ' the glycoside has not been determined. The glycoside has been fractionally extracted using various polar solvents. The fractions obtained from these extractions - ' . all\ave essentially the same ultraviolet^ spectra. This would indicate a fair degree of purity. The melting point is not sharp. As is characteristic of amorphous compounds it softens over a wide range} melting between 120 and’ 150 C. Further attempts will be made to fractionate this glycoside fraction by countercurrent extraction and also by altering the techniques employed to date. . . Microenzymatic methods will be employed to determine if the •V- “ glycos idle linkage is alpha or beta. Downgraded to: • .V- . ;f V ’ > * by authority of: 187475 .^v-. ’ ~ • >*- date: June 1977 b.\ ’.“.r-! ..y-- ,<• - ' y V.*