Determination of atropine and scopolamine by proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy

A simple, accurate and specific proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometric method is described for the quantitative determination of atropine and scopolamine in plants. The method is based on a comparison of the integrated peak areas of the N-CH3 protons of both compounds (centred at 2.15 and 2.5 ppm) with that of the sharp singlet of 1, 4-dioxane (positioned at 3.5 ppm) which is used as the internal standard. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.