A survey of - and an investigation into - the chemistry of picrotoxin

Abstract

The discovery of Picrotoxin and the subsequent investigation of its chemistry, and the chemistry of its derivatives, has occupied but a small space in the vast storehouse of chemical knowledge for almost a century and a half. The importance of picrotoxin in organic chemistry is not great - rather, interest is centred on the baffling nature of its reactions, the complexity of the products obtained, and the way in which it has eluded all attempts at accurate formulation. Workers in the picrotoxin field have not been many, but those who have wrestled with the intricacies of these compounds have amassed a relatively large quantity of obscurely related, and confusing, data, all of which must be carefully sifted in order to obtain a real grasp of the problems involved. The Interest in picrotoxin stems from its alliance with a small group of compounds of which little is at present known - the Amaroids, the non-nitrogenous bitter principles, the so-called "lactone-poisons". The importance of these principles is of a Pharmacological nature, their action being very similar to that of the Strychnos alkaloids. The employment of these compounds is treated with great caution owing to the extreme violence of the physiological reaction produced. It seems imperative that before these compounds can be safely used more of their chemistry must be understood. Picrotoxin is one of the more widely investigated members of the group, and it is this compound which forms the subject matter of this thesis.