Naming
The name "alkaloids" (German: Alkaloide) was introduced in 1819 by the German chemist Carl F.W. Meissner, and is derived from late Latin root Latin: alkali (which, in turn, comes from the Arabic al-qalwī – "ashes of plants") and the suffix Greek: -οειδής – "like". However, the term came into wide use only after the publication of a review article by O. Jacobsen in the chemical dictionary of Albert Ladenburg in the 1880s.
There is no unique method of naming alkaloids. Many individual names are formed by adding the suffix "ine" to the species or genus name. For example, atropine is isolated from the plant Atropa belladonna, strychnine is obtained from the seed of Strychnine tree (Strychnos nux-vomica L.). If several alkaloids are extracted from one plant then their names often contain suffixes "idine", "anine", "aline", "inine", etc. There are also at least 86 alkaloids containing the root "vin" (extracted from the Vinca plant).
Read more about this topic: Alkaloid
Famous quotes containing the word naming:
“The night is itself sleep
And what goes on in it, the naming of the wind,
Our notes to each other, always repeated, always the same.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“See, see where Christ’s blood streams in the firmament!
One drop would save my soul—half a drop! ah, my Christ!—
Ah, rend not my heart for naming of my Christ!—
Yet will I call on him!—O, spare me, Lucifer!—
Where is it now? ‘T is gone; and see where God
Stretcheth out his arm, and bends his ireful brows!—
Mountains and hills, come, come and fall on me,
And hide me from the heavy wrath of God!”
—Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593)
“Husband,
who am I to reject the naming of foods
in a time of famine?”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)