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,Uv Th© #seed of ra^trailing vine which grows in Mexico and Central' America has been used by natives of those regions since Ancient times as a narcotic. ^...^thou^. the i plant has _ _ been classified by" takonomists^of the Smithsonian Institute aS impomoe a s idae foila/Cho 1sy , a plant of. the Convolvulaceae family / its seeds/ because of- their -physiological activity, / .//.y ‘have^been^cons id^ed' "onejof "the! "peyotes” The most . - * ; common example’ of V ,,peyote n drug is the button from the • . cactus, An^hftonluia lewlnll . ' . - ;:yy until tttie work reported here, theonlywork carried out : ; ' J to determine the active .constituent) of these seeds was that by C. G. Santesson of the Medico-Surgical Institute in : / ;; /;. Stockholm' and reported in the Archiv der Pharmozie 275,___ ' vW 532-537, (1937). His experiments, which were conducted on small quantities of seed/ indicate that a water extract of the crushed seed contained a glyco- alkaloid which had nar- cotic effect on frogs, mice and rabbits before and after acidic hydrolysis. The presence of sugars was determined by means of the Fehlings test. The evidence for reporting alkaloids was precipitatesWith reagents such as /phosphom^lybdic and phospho tongs tic acids. In the present investigation, which was carried out during a five week period at. the ' . WlJPgl small quantities (15-60 g.) of the seed were used to WARNING NOTICE ! ' / W' . ^ • Ji •' /