Girgensohnia diptera

Tryptamine (XIV) is found in some species of Acacia (7). It may be formed by putrefaction bacteria from tryptophan-containing media (63). N-Methyltryptamine (XV) is said to be idential with dipterin which occurs in Girgensohnia diptera Bge. and Arthrophytum leptocladum Popov (64). Results of pharmacological studies show that tryptamines are musculo-tropic and not sympathomimetic (65). They do not dilate the rabbit s pupil and they contract both the rabbit s isolated intestine and guinea pig s uterus. The pressor action of tryptamine is higher than that of N-methyltryptamine. The former is metaboMzed to indoleacetic acid by deamination in the body (13). 

Girgensohnia spp. G. diptera Bge. contains N-methylpiperidine and dipterine, CHH14N2, m.p. 87-8°, [a]D 0° hydrochloride, m.p. 177-8°, picrate, m.p. 189-190°, and picrolonate, m.p. 242-3°, which was later shown to be N-methyltryptamine.i G. oppositiflora Pall, contains N-methylpiperidine and girgensonine, C13H13ON2, m.p. 147-8°, [aJjj 0°. The latter forms a hydrochloride, m.p. 145-8°, and a picrolonate, m.p. 192-4°, and on hydrolysis by alkali yields piperidine, hydrocyanic acid and p-hydroxybenzaldehyde, indicating that it is N-piperidyl-p-hydroxy-phenylacetonitrile, and this has been confirmed by comparison with a synthetic specimen. ( (1) Juraschevski and Stepanova, J. Gen. Chem. Russ., 1939, 9, 2203 Juraschevski, ibid., 1940, 10, 1781. (2) Juraschevski and Stepanova, ibid., 1946, 16, 141). 

---