C17H21NO4 See also:

• C17H21NO4 COCAINE

COCAINE  , an See also:

• ALKALOID

alkaloid occurring to the extent of about 1% in the leaves of Erythroxylon See also:

• COCA, or CUCA (Erythroxylon coca)

coca (see above) . It is associated with many other alkaloids: cinnamyl See also:

• COCAINE, C17H21NO4

cocaine, C19H23NO4; a-truxilline (C19H23N04)2; /3-truxilline, (C19H23N04)2; benzoylecgonine, C,6H,9NO2; tropa-cocaine, C13H19NO2; hygrine, C8H15NO; cuscohygrine, C,3H24NO2 . These substances, which may be collectively termed " cocaines," are all derivatives of See also:

• ECGONINE

ecgonine (q.v.) . Cocaine is benzoylmethyl ecgonine . It crystallizes from See also:

• ALCOHOL

alcohol in prisms, which are sparingly soluble in See also:

• WATER

water . Its See also:

• SOLUTION (from Lat. solvere, to loosen, dissolve)

solution has a See also:

• BITTER, KARL THEODORE FRANCIS (1867– )

bitter See also:

• TASTE (from Lat. taxare, to touch sharply; tangere, to touch)

taste, alkaline reaction, and is laevorotatory . Its use as a See also:

• LOCAL

local anaesthetic (see See also:

• ANAESTHESIA

ANAESTHESIA) makes it the most valuable of the coca alkaloids, and it is much used in ophthalmic practice . Applied to the conjunctiva it causes anaesthesia, See also:

• DILATATION (from Lat. dis-, distributive, and lotus, wide)

dilatation of the See also:

• PUPIL (Lat. pupillus, orphan, minor, dim. of pupus, boy, allied to puer, from root pm- or peu-, to beget, cf. "pupa," Lat. for " doll," the name given to the stage intervening between the larval and imaginal stages in certain insects)

pupil, diminution of the intraocular tension, and some interference with See also:

• ACCOMMODATION (Lat. accommodare, to make fit, from ad, to, cum, with, and modus, measure)

accommodation . The See also:

• CONVERSION (Lat. conversio, from convertere, to turn or ,change)

conversion of the mixture obtained by extracting coca-leaves into cocaine is effected by saponifying the See also:

• ESTERS

esters into ecgonine and the respective acids, and then benzoylating and methylating the ecgonine . Homologues of cocaine—ethylbenzoylecgonine, &c.— have been prepared; they closely resemble natural cocaine . Cinnamyl cocaine is cinnamylmethylecgonine, i.e. cocaine in which the benzoyl See also:

• GROUP

group is replaced by the cinnamyl group. a- and fl-truxillines, named from their See also:

• ISOLATION

isolation from a coca of Truxillo .(See also:

• PERU
• PERU (apparently from Biru, a small river on the west coast of Colombia, where Pizarro landed)

Peru), are two isomeric alkaloids which hydrolyse to ecgonine, methyl alcohol, and two isomeric acids, the truxillic acids, C18H1604 . T'he alkaloids are therefore methyl truxillylecgonines .

The truxillic acids have been studied by K . See also:

• LIEBERMANN, MAX (1849– )

Liebermann and his students (Ber., vols . 21-27, and 31), and are See also:

• DIPHENYL (phenyl benzene), C6H5

diphenyl tetra-methylene dicarboxylic acids .