Trimethylamine

Trimethylamine, (CH₃)₃N, found in brine, oysters, gonads of Rhizostoma Cuvieri, cod liver oil, canned sardines, rotten meat, cultures of various microorganisms on gelatin, fibrin, meat, etc.; in Gorgonzola cheese, in coot meat (Fulica atra), in milk, in vaginal secretions (see). There are indications of the presence of T. in the free state in human blood, in normal urine, and in the urine of the mentally ill. However, the finding of T. as a preformed substance is not always reliable, since it is easily formed secondarily through the action of putrefactive bacteria, as well as by many reagents on trimethylamine oxide, choline, lecithin, betaine, neurine, etc. T. is a poisonous liquefying gas at +3°; it smells of brine, is easily soluble in water, alcohol, ether, is precipitated by Nessler's reagent, with a solution of mercuric iodide in potassium iodide gives a sparingly soluble compound (CH₃)₃N.HJ.HgJ₂. To detect T. in urine, the latter is distilled at low temperature and the T. is cooled with gold hydrochloride acid. To separate T. from other amines and ammonia, the latter are destroyed by nitrous acid or hypobromite. In the muscles, blood, and urine of sharks and many lower marine animals (unlike freshwater animals), the oxide of T. (CH₃)₃NO was found, a non-poisonous substance of neutral reaction, which in these animals probably plays a role analogous to urea in the organism of mammals.