A30

I - 8

Toxicology 81

T o x i c i t y o f V i a l s e r T l l i a : O c c u r r e n c e o f . L a t h y r o g e n i c a m i n o a c t 4 8 .

I. Ferrando! M a A. ~arcfa! N. Cuartero and E. Ballesteros.

Department of Physiological Sciences. Cathedre of Pharmacology and Toxicology. Faculty of Veterinary. University of Zarsgoza. Zarsgo- Za. Spain.

The seeds of several species of Viola are implicated in the disease complex called lathyrim~ Lookin S for the lathyrogenic aminoaclds

-glutamyl-~-cyanoalanlne snd~ -cyanoalanine in mature seeds of Vlcla ervilla. They have been deleted and the extraction have been done wlth ethanol-30% and then puto to Ion-exchange chromatographla wlth Chromobeads C 3. The retention time have been measured wlth standards and in comparison wlth solutions of Vlcla satlva, proving the existence of the compounds in thls plant. This compounds vsnls- hed with scldlc hydro]isis ~-alsnlne increased. Thl8 increase could be relstioned with the presence of ~ -amine proplonltrile. A crystaline solid have been isolated by pmrlflng the e x t r a c t s on Amberllte IR-120 eluylng them wlth ammonia. Analysed with IR it co- rresponded to~-amlnoaclds acid there have been detected ~-amlnopr S plonltrlle according t o the method of ~arbut and Strong. When adml- nistered intraperitoneal (35 mg) (I00 gr body weight) to young rats it have provoked death. Intramuscular doses of 60 mg/IOO g body weight provoked locomotives alterations and death in chicken, Pro- tection with pyrldoxal chrohydrate have not been observed.

I - 9 Convulsive syndrome in mice produced by extracts of Cistus laurifo- I l u s ~

MIEusl A. Bregante! Miguel CapS! Rosa Ma Morales y Emilio Ballasts rOS*

Department of Physiological Sciences. Cathedra of Pharmacology and Toxicology. Faculty of Veterinary. University of Zaragoza. Zarago- Za. Spain.

The fact that the Cistaceae are distributed exclusively in medlte- rranean nations brings about that their toxicity Is almost unknown. It is known that the mentioned plant (C. laurlfollus) 18 poisonous for domestic animals in extensive llve stock, being able to produ- ce, besides other symptoms a state of convulsive caracterlstlcs.. In spite of different attempts the origin of the toxicity of the plant is still unknown. After having verified different kinds of extracts for groups norm_a ly forming part of plants, it has been succeeded in reproducelng the convulsive syndrome in mice with the extracts containing flav~ nolds. The extractions have been realized according to the methods described by Clarke (sucesive aqueous, acid and ethereal extrac- tlons). The identification was verified with colorlmetrlc (Millions, Lie- bermans, NO3H) and thin layer chromatograflc tests. After the sdml nlstretlon, of the extract s state of convulsl~e nature begins an~ lasts 1-5', then the anlmsl recuperates. (DLbO. 2,2~ mg/g, D.C.." 1,7 mg/g). The origin of the reproduced syndrome is supposed, be- cause of initial snatomopathologlcal tests, to lie at the level of the described fact that polifenolic compounds originate degenera- tion problems at the periferlc ne1~al system.