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chlorophyll. (Compare Hoppe-Seyler's chlorophyllanic acid.) 

 This was dissolved in water, and the solution then saturated 

 with common salt ; the sodium salt of the pigment separated 

 from solution. It was separated from salt by alcohol, and from 

 the soaps which contaminate it by washing it with a mixture of 

 alcohol and ether. Finally, it was dissolved in water, the 

 aqueous solution made slightly acid with acetic acid, and the 

 precipitated pigment extracted with ether. It was purified by 

 dissolving in ether and precipitating from this solution by light 

 petroleum, in which it is only very slightly soluble. In this 

 way a product was obtained in the form of a dark greenish- 

 blue mass, insoluble in water, with difficulty soluble in alcohol 

 and ether, and insoluble in light petroleum. It possessed a 

 characteristic absorption spectrum. Its chemical constitution 

 corresponded with the formula C3oH 34 4 N 4 or C 52 H r)7 7 N 7 . It 

 dissolved easily in alkalis, and gave a sodium salt which was 

 only with difficulty soluble in alcohol. 



Phyllotaonin. — Alkachlorophyll dissolved readily in concen- 

 trated hydrochloric acid with no apparent change ; when, how- 

 ever, this acid solution was extracted with ether, the latter 

 took up a pigment, which on spectroscopic examination revealed 

 the presence of another substance, which Schunck and March- 

 lewski had previously obtained by the action of acids and 

 alkalis on phylloxanthin and phyllocyanin. This product had 

 been called by Schunck phyllotaonin, and the alkyl esters of this 

 substance were readily obtained from alkachlorophyll, by 

 dissolving it in strong hydrochloric acid, and throwing the 

 acid solution into boiling methyl or ethyl alcohol. 



This phyllotaonin was obtained, therefore, from the products 

 of the action both of acids and of alkalis on chlorophyll. From 

 the products of the alkali reaction it could be obtained by 

 treatment with acids, and from the products of acid reaction, 

 by treatment either with acids or alkalis. On account of the 

 interesting degradation product obtained from it, phyllotaonin 

 deserves a more detailed consideration. It could be readily 

 obtained from the crude alkachlorophyll solution. The chloro- 

 phyll solution, after boiling with alkali, was saturated with 

 hydrochloric acid gas. The green solution became somewhat 

 lighter, and assumed afterwards a purple tint. On allowing 

 it to stand for about ten days, beautiful needles in star-shaped 

 aggregates, appearing purple in reflected light, and brown in 



