752 NATURE May 22, 1965 vo1... 2oa which has some structural resemblance to tetra.caino, has possible to demonstrate in vitro that it is the immediate been cla.imed to be an excellent non-toxic antitussive. precursor to aldosterone. Provisional chemical identifica­ F. C. Copp has surveyed rocent advances in the develop­ tion of the so-called "3 oxo-conjugate" was also reported. ments of drugs which reduce the blood pressuro by The papers and discussion covered a wide spectrum of selectively affecting tho functioning of the postganglionic topics related to aldosterone. However, as pointed out sympathetic adrenergic nerves. Those adrenergic neurone­ by Dr. G. W. Liddle in his concluding remarks, the blocking agents include quaternary ammonium com­ subject of intra-adrenal biochemical conditions affecting pounds, large ring compounds containing side-chains with aldosterone synthesis and release received little attention amidoxine, guanidine, and amide groupings and benzyl at the conference, as did the subject of the intimate guanidines. Some of tho compounds, including bretylium, biochemical mechanism of action of aldosterone. This, guanethidine and two of the benzylguanidines, have found no doubt, is a reflexion of the fact that these aspects of clinical use_ tho subject are probably not receiving the attention they These articles illustrate the efficiency with which merit. BERTHA SINGER organic chemistry can be used in tho development of various areas of drug research once a lead and a suit­ able test system have boon found. It is by this semi­ STEROIDAL ALKALOIDS IN empirical approach that many valuable drugs are still APOCYNACEAE obtained. E. P. ABRAHAM Les Alcaloides Steroidiques des Apocynacees Par Robert Goutarel. (Chimie des Substances Naturelles, RECENT ADVANCES IN Nr. 5.) Pp. 289. (Paris: H ermann, 1964.) 48 francs. ALDOSTERONE RESEARCH HIS monograph, with a foreword by M.-M. Janot, T is a most welcome addition to the excellent French Aldosterone series Chimie des Substances Naturelles edited by Edgar Edited by E. E. Baulieu and P. Robel. (A Symposium Lederer, and it more than fully meets the high standards organized by the Council for International Organizations set for the series of providing comprehensivo yet concise of Modica! Sciences established under the joint auspices treatments of relatively narrow groups of natural products, of UNESCO and WHO.) Pp. xix+523_ (Oxford: Bla.ck­ written by authorities who have made major contributions well Scientific Publications, 1964.) lOOs. in the field concerned. It is well conceived and its 289 HIS volume consists of twenty-six papers presented pages tlmbrace a thorough coverage of all aspects of the T at the symposium on aldosterone held in Prague in literature pertaining to the steroidal alkaloids which August 1963. The participants included most of the have been isolated from plants belonging to the family research workers actively engaged in research in this Apocynaceae. It is perhaps unfortunate, however, that field and included biochemists, physiologists, pharmaco­ the recent discoveries of steroidal alkaloids of the pregnane logists, nephrologists, cardiologists and obstetricians. It typo in plants of the families Buxaceae and Euphorbiaceae is extremely useful in bringing together under one cover destroy what had previously appeared to be a clearly recent developments in the field of aldosterone research. defined chemical classification, thus leaving the content of The lively discussions arc particularly interesting in the work somewhat arbitrarily limited on the grounds of underlining points of disagreement. taxonomy alone. The presentations arc divided into three parts. Part l Tho subject matter is handled in a most logical manner deals with methods of measurement and metabolism. It with t he monograph being divided into four self-contained includes papers on tho relationship of IS-hydroxycortico­ chapters covering sources and methods of isolation of the sterone to aldosterone, aldosterone metabolism, renal alkaloids; chemical classification, structural elucidation clearance of aldosterone and its metabolites, measurement and synthesis of the individual alkaloids; utilization of of peripheral plasma aldosterone as well as secretion rate, the alkaloids in the production of steroid hormones and the isolation of human urinary metabolites, and the other therapeutic agents; and the biological activities conjugation of aldosterone and t etrahydroaldosterone in displayed by the alkaloids. Each chapter is clearly written human urine and plasma. and verbal description is kept to a minimum by the Part 2 deals with its regulation and biological effects. judicious use of well-presented tables which provide a It includes papers on tho relation of r enin and angiotensin wealth of ready information with minimal effort on the II to aldosterone secretion and sodium excretion, studies part of tho reader. on the sheep and rat including renin measurements in Tho first chapter, dealing with the sources and methods hypertensive rats, tho role of the central nervous system of extraction and separation of the different alkaloids, and potassium as well as renal blood supply. includes an excellent summary of the precise taxonomical Part 3 deals with arterial hypertension and other relationships of those species of the Apocynacea.e in which pathological manifet~tations. It includes papers on steroidal alkaloids have boon found. Indeed, it should primary aldosteronism, a familial disorder simulating prove of considerable value as a guide to the more likely primary aldosteronism, hyperaldosteronism secondary to sources of further alkaloids belonging to the pregnane renal ischaemia, relationship of aldosterone and angio­ group. tensin to human hypertensive disease, estimation of The second chapter, which covers the fundamental plasma renin, hyperaldosteronism in oedema and idio­ chemistry of the alkaloids, makes copious usc of structural pathic oedema and the secretion of aldosterone in normal formulae which are sensibly designated by means of pregnancy and pre-eclampsia. arabic and not Roman numerals, serving to make the text Much of the discussion was concerned with the role of very easy to follow. The inclusion of direct reproductions the renin--angiotensin mechanism in relation to aldo­ of t.hc infra-red spectra of tho individual alkaloids and of sterone production. It is clear that thoro has been much line diagrams of selected mass spectra is a most com­ progress recently in methods of estimation of aldosterone mendable feature. The presentation of tables of physical and renin. It also emerged that in order to assess the constants of the parent alkaloids and their derivatives is importance of aldosterone in any particular situation also n,n excellent foaturo and, taken together with tho neither the excretion nor even tho Accretion rates may be infra-red and mass spectra., these should prove invBluable Aufficient. However, plasma levels n.re, at present, both to the ready identification of any known pregnane difficult and expensive. Although IS-hydroxycortico­ alkaloids isolated from other plants in the futme. A sterone is a normal secretory product in the human and logical sequence is developed by dividing the alkaloids its secretory rate is related to aldosterone, it has not been into 4 main groups-those derived from 601-pregnane,

© 1965 Nature Publishing Group No. 4986 May 22, 1965 NATURE 753 those derived from pregn-5-ena, those derived from organoboron, organosilicon, arsenic and halogen functions cone.ni.ne and those of unknown structure-and then and the determination of water. Altogether nearly one creating further sub-divisions with each alkaloid in turn hundred functions and methods for their analysis are being discussed in terms of its source, its physical con­ discussed. Instrumental methods of analysis are not dis­ stants, the key experimental evidence leading up to the cussed in the first part of the book, but in this section structural assignment with copious cross-references to many examples of their use are woven into the text in a established analogies, and finally, its synthesis. balanced manner. It is indeed refreshing to find authors The third chapter, which discusses the conversion of who regard these methods simply as weapons in the various alkaloids into steroid hormones and other thera­ analyst's armoury neither to be shunned through ignorance peutic agents, should serve to stimulate new interest in a of their potentialities nor enshrined for the same reason. number of these alkaloids as alternative potential raw The final section of the book deals with experimental materials for the commercial preparation of steroidal procedures and is divided into two parts dealing with medicaments. methods requiring normal and special apparatus. This Chapter 4, dealing with the biological properties and section, which lists detailed analytical procedures of fifty­ pharmacology of the alkaloids, is again very thorough and, two experiments, no doubt incorporates much of the as well as providing a review of the pharmacological work and the results of the authors' twelve-year research literature concerned with the purified principles, includes project on functional group analysis, referred to in the references to Galenicals obtained from plants of the preface. Full details are given for these experiments and Apocynaceae since shown to contain steroidal alkaloids. the lay-out follows the standard pattern. The work includes both subject and author indexes Altogether this is a very useful book which, in addition with 385 references. This book should prove to be of great to providing the basis for a course in organic analysis, value both to workers whose special interests lie in the will provide a great deal of information for organic domain of alkaloids and to workers whose special interests analysts at all levels. P. J. CooPER lie in the steroid field. M. MARTIN -SMITH RADIATION CHEMISTRY IN U.S.S.R. ORGANIC ANAL YSJS Radiolysis of Hydrocarbons Organic Functional Group Analysis by Micro and Edited by A. V. Topchiev. English edition edited by Semimicro Methods R. A. Holroyd. Pp. xii + 232. (Amsterdam, London By N.D. Cheronis and T. S. Ma. Pp. xxv + 696. (New and New York: Elsevier Publishing Company, 1964.) York, London and Sydney : John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 658. 1964.) 188s. HIS English edition of a book edited by the late ROFS. Cheronis and Ma, in compiling Organic Func­ T Academician A. V. Topchiev, who was director of the P tional Group Analysis by Micro and Semimicro Petroleum Institute, U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences, Methods, have made available the fruits of their many Moscow, is a necessary addition to the library of all radia­ years experience in the teaching of organic analysis at the tion cheinists. It is one of the few reviews of radiation City University of New York. The book is described as chemistry in the U.S.S.R. in English. This monograph being intended for students pursuing an advanced course contains basically a description of the research activities in organic analysis and for organic research cheinists who, of the Radiation Research Laboratories of the Institute for although they may not wish to analyse their products Petrochemical Synthesis between 1957 and 1961, and it themselves (and which of them does?}, may wish to be Inirrors the scientific interests of these Laboratories. familiar with the methods used by those expected to do This book is mainly of interest to those working in the so. This, according to Prof. Ma, is in order that they might field of radiation cheinistry of organic compounds, but it be better able to interpret the results of analysis. No doubt contains interesting chapters dealing with a theory of all analysts will sympathize with this objective, but they radiationless energy-transfer and theoretical aspects of may also wonder whether Prof. Ma is being a little opti­ hydrocarbon radiolysis which are worth the consideration mistic. In fact the book will be of value to all practising of all radiation chemists. The latter chapter contains a analysts and not merely to students. The discussions of section on the kinetics of reactions occurring in tracks methods and principles are wide-ranging, the references to which requires a sound grasp of statistical methods; a original literature copious and the necessary information section on the kinetics of radiolysis in the presence of 'hot' drawn from them without the inclusion of unnecessary atoms and molecular fragments which considers space­ detail. energy distributions using the method of energy groups The authors have divided their book into three parts, frequently used in the theory of neutron deceleration and dealing with general analytical techniques and methods, thermalization; and finally a section dealing with the analytical methods for particular functional groups, and statistical theory of activated processes initiated by ioniz­ finally experimental procedures. The general methods ing radiation in condensed systems. This problem is section deals with such elementary analytical techniques tackled from the point of view of probability theory using as weighing, measurement of volume, filtration heating, the ideas of the statistical theory of oscillations. etc., with special emphasis on micro- and semimicro­ The remaining chapters are of a more experimental techniques. Clearly this part of the book is directed pri­ nature, although attempts are made to connect theory with marily at the student readership. The one criticism of this practice at all times. These chapters contain a wealth section is levelled at the chapter dealing with the influence of useful and interesting results. Full descriptions of of molecular structure on reaction rates. In an analytical experimental and analytical techniques are given. The work such as this, discussion of the subject cannot be very headings of these chapters are: "Physicochemical Charac­ detailed, but if it is not it is unlikely to be of much value. teristics of Hydrocarbon Radiolysis"; "Kinetics of Radio­ Only eight pages are devoted to it, and this amounts to lysis of Hydrocarbons" ; "Free Radicals in the Radiolysis little more than an elaborate statement that reactions are of Hydrocarbons"; "Radiolysis of Alkanes Adsorbed on influenced by molecular structure. Oxide Catalysts"; "Radiation-Thermal Cracking of Part 2, the critical survey of analytical methods, is a Hydrocarbons". mine of useful information. Functional groups are consi­ Thirteen persons participated in the writing of this dered under the headings: oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur, monograph and this is apparent to some extent. However, unsaturated and miscellaneous functions. The last of these because of the nature of this book this is not a serious includes hydrocarbon, organophosphorus, organomercury, fault. What is more annoying is a number of obvious

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