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alkaloid
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Alkaloid
Any of a number of physiologically active and frequently poisonous substances contained in some plants. They are usually organic bases and contain nitrogen. They form salts with acids and, when soluble, give alkaline solutions.
Substances in this group are included by custom rather than by scientific rules. Examples include morphine, cocaine, quinine, caffeine, strychnine, nicotine, and atropine.
In 1992, epibatidine, a chemical extracted from the skin of an Ecuadorean frog, was identified as a member of an entirely new class of alkaloid. It is an organochlorine compound, which is rarely found in animals, and a powerful painkiller, about 200 times as effective as morphine.
© Research Machines plc 2008. All rights reserved. Helicon Publishing is a division of Research Machines plc.
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