Laburnum vulgare

Cytisus Laburnum L. (Laburnum vulgare Presl.) and Euchresta... 

Cytisine (12, 38). The ground tops and seeds of Laburnum vuLgare were air-dried and extracted in a soxhlet with 50 % aqueous ethanol to which had been added 2 % of acetic acid. The extract after concentration was cleared with lead acetate, concentrated, made alkaline with sodium hydroxide, and extracted six times with an equal volume of chloroform. This left only a trace of cytisine in the aqueous layer. When the chloroform was removed, the residual alkaloidal material crystallized in part. No clear-cut separation of components was accomplished by fractional crystallization of the free base or the crude picrate. The isolation of cytisine as the benzenesulfonyl derivative was effected according to the method of Ing (5), and benzenesulfonyl-cytisine was collected and recrystallized from ethanol as glistening prisms, m.p. 261 . Microchemical tests and picrate formation and identification were also used to establish the presence of cytisine in a particular plant. 

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