TWO NEW ALKALOIDS IN CACTI

macromeris (Engelm.) Lem., Britton and Rose, has been found to contain three alkaloids by gas chromatography. The alkaloids were extracted on a large sc8le from the plant by standard methods.a The principal alkaloid was sepa-rated from the minor constituents by chromatography on alumina, The main alkaloid, "macramerine", gave mol. wt. 240 2 25 GLCS, (213 vapor pressure lower-ing), m.p. 66-67.5 " and rotation of ( [o]Es- 147.01, c = 0.0390 g/ml, CHCl,; PIBS- 42.61, c- 0.0200 g/ml, absolute ethanol). The structure, according to spectral data discussed below, is (I): Phe n.m.r. spectrum indicated three aromatic hydrogens, a benxylic hydrogen, and an alcohol hydrogen [singlet 3.915 (1H); shifts with concentra-tion changes and disappears in deuterium oxide]. Two methoxgls were shown centered at 3.955 (6H), a doublet centered at 2.205 (2H) and a singlet 2.335 (6H). The latter two groups of hydrogens were determined to be a methylene group (2.205) attached to nitrogen and not to an aromatic system by observing the chemical shift, to lower'field, of these hydrogen8 by changing solvent from chloroform to deuterium oxide and finally to acidic deuterium oxide.4 The i.r. spectrum showed the hydroxyl to be strongly associated, in RBr pellet, by a broad band at 3125 cm-l. Elemental analysis has confirmed the empirica