REVIEW Institute of Pharmacy1, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tartu, Estonia; Department of Dosage Form Technology2, Faculty of Pharmacy, Riga Stradins University, Latvia; Department of Drug Technology and Social Pharmacy3; Department of Pharmacognosy4, Faculty of Pharmacy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas, Lithuania; Department of Pharmacognosy5, National University of Pharmacy, Kharkiv, Ukraine; Department of Pharmacognosy and Pharmaceutical Botany6, Faculty of Pharmacy, Nicolae Testemitanu State University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Republic of Moldova; Faculty of Pharmacy7, Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Hue University, Vietnam Dragendorff’s reagent: Historical perspectives and current status of a versatile reagent introduced over 150 years ago at the University of Dorpat, Tartu, Estonia A. RAAL1,*, A. MEOS1, T. HINRIKUS1, J. HEINÄMÄKI1, E. ROMĀNE2, V. GUDIENĖ3, V. JAKŠTAS4, O. KOSHOVYI5, A. KOVALEVA5, C. FURSENCO6, T. C HIRU6, H. T. NGUYEN7 Received March 25, 2020, accepted April 23, 2020 *Corresponding author: A. Raal, Nooruse 1, Tartu 50411, Estonia
[email protected] Pharmazie 75: 299-306 (2020) doi: 10.1691/ph.2020.0438 The well-known Dragendorff’s reagent (DR) was introduced by an Estonian-German Professor Johann Georg Noel Dragendorff (1836–1898) in the middle of the 19th century (1866). Dragendorff, who was a full-time professor in pharmacy at the university of Dorpat (Tartu) used his reagent originally for the rapid screening of herbal products to find traces of alkaloids. DR is a solution of potassium bismuth iodide composing of basic bismuth nitrate (Bi(NO3)3), tartaric acid, and potassium iodide (KI), and when contact with alkaloids DR produces an orange or orange red precipitate.