PRELIMINARY NOTE/ON A NEW 
MEDICINAL PLAiyr AND ITS AL 
KALOID. / / 
H. C. WOOD, M.D. 
<RE PRINTED FROM THF PHILADELPHIA MEDICAL 
TIMES.) 
SOME! time since, I received from the 
Smithsonian Institute a letter contain- 
ing some small, red beans, which had been 
sent there by Mr. Edmund Bellinger, Sr., 
of Texas. The beans were irregularly oval 
or roundish; about one-third of an inch in 
length, and had a slightly bitter taste, 
with an after-feeling of numbness, when 
chewed. Mr. Bellinger stated that they 
were occasionally used by the Indians in 
the neighborhood of San Antonio, South- 
western Texas, as an intoxicant; that a 
half bean would produce delirious exhilar- 
ation, followed by sleep which lasts two or 
three days; and that it was asserted that a 
whole bean would kill a man. 
Mr. Bellinger has been kind enough to 
send me several small packages of the bean. 
It is the very imperfect results of this study 
which I now publish, hoping before many 2 
months to be able to lay before the profes- 
sion an exhaustive report upon the drug or 
poison. 
With the beans, there were in the first 
letter of Mr. Bellinger a few broken 
flowers. On submitting these to Dr. Roth- 
rock, Professor of Botany in the Univer- 
sity of Pennsylvania, he, after very little 
hesitation, pronounced them to belong to 
the genus Sophora; and comparison with 
the specimens of Sophora speciosa of Ben- 
tham, in his herbarium, left very little 
doubt that the beans are yielded by that 
tree. 
I have made a partial chemical study of 
them, and have obtained in several ways, 
but in very small amount, an organic prin- 
ciple, which is exceedingly active as a poi- 
son, the minutest speck producing in two 
minutes almost entire paralysis in the frog. 
One-twentieth of a grain of a very im- 
pure specimen produced in a half-grown 
cat deep sleep lasting many hours. 
As this substance is not soluble in water, 
but is soluble in acidulated water and is 
precipitated by alkalies, and as it dissolves 
freely in ether, imparting to it a decidedly 
alkaline reaction, it must be looked upon 
as an alkaloid. I would propose for it the 
name of Sophoria. 
I obtained it of a grayish-white color, 
but did not succeed in crystallizing either 
it or its acetate. Its reactions, as far as I 
have examined them, are as follows (the 3 
tests were made by placing a speck of the 
alkaloid upon a porcelain plate and apply- 
ing the reagent). 
With concentrated sulphuric acid, no color. 
With chromic acid and concentrated sul- 
phuric acid, a dirty, deep purple, passing rap- 
idly into bright green, then into bluish and 
finally into yellowish brown. 
With tincture of the chloride of iron, a deep, 
almost blood red, after a time acquiring an 
orange tint 
With nitric acid, no color. 
With chromic and nitric acid, a very faint, 
evanescent reddish color. 
With nitromuriatic acid, a dirty reddish 
brown. 
From the solution of its acetate, compound 
tincture of iodine throws down a yellowish 
precipitate. 
I have made plij-siological experiments 
with an alcoholic extract of the bean 
upon the lower animals sufficient to out- 
line its general action. 
In frogs it produces a rapid loss of re- 
flex activity and power of voluntary move- 
ment. The loss of power is not due to 
any action upon the motor nerve-trunks, 
as after death these were found to preserve 
their normal susceptibility. Further, tying 
the sciatic artery upon one or both sides 
of the frog did not influence the action 
of the drug upon either voluntary or reflex 
movements. This would indicate that the 
poison is a spinal sedative and has little or 
no effect upon either motor or sensitive 4 
nerves. In all cases the heart continued 
beating long after the cessation of respi- 
ration. 
Upon mammals the effect varies some- 
what in accordance with the dose. An 
amount of the extract estimated at'two 
grains (?) produced, in a full grown tom-cat, 
in one minute marked weakness in hind 
legs, in two minutes inability to stand, with 
evident effect upon the respiration, in 
three minutes convulsive movements with 
loss of consciousness, continuing with ever- 
increasing embarrassment of the breathing 
for three minutes, when all attempts at res- 
piration ceased. The heart kept on beat- 
ing for one and a half minutes longer. The 
pupils were unaffected at first, afterwards 
dilated. 
In small quantity the extract produces 
in the cat vomiting, great muscular weak- 
ness, profound quietude, and deep sleep, 
lasting some hours, and ending in recovery. 
In dogs the symptoms were similar to those 
noted in cats. Death always took place 
through the respiration. In a single car- 
diac experiment the drug had no decided 
effect upon the blood-pressure until towards 
death, but appeared to accelerate the car- 
diac beat.