1 64- J. C. Marquart's Report of the Progress of Pkytochemistry 



The peculiar substance of the Catechu prepared from the 

 Nauclca Gambir is, as confirmed by Pfaff *, identical with the 

 tannic acid of Biichner. It dissolves easily in boiling water, less 

 so in cold ; the solution acts as an acid, becomes yellow when 

 exposed to the air, colours solutions of iron green, and does 

 not precipitate gelatine: it consists of C 18 H 8 8 . 



The peculiar acid fu mar acid, discovered by Winckler in 

 Fumaria officinalis was subjected by Horace Demarcay f to an 

 elementary analysis, and was found to be isomeric with the 

 paramalic acid, which, as is known, is a product of the de- 

 composition of malic acid. 



M. Geiger found in the bark from the roots of Cormisflorida, 

 an acid, cornic acid, which contained no nitrogen, was cry- 

 stalline, easily soluble in water and alcohol, and possessed a 

 bitter taste. The shiller substance (Shillerstqjff) found in the 

 bark of several dicotyledonous trees was more accurately ex- 

 amined by M. Trommsdorff, sen.:f: its properties indicate 

 that it belongs to the class of acids. Trommsdorff, jun., found 

 it to consist of C 8 H 9 O s . 



M. Trommsdorff, jun. §, found in the so-called wormseed 

 (the fruit-bearing calathiae of Artemisia glomerata,) pure acetic 

 acid; and M:Radig|| found 11 per cent, of acetic acid combined 

 with potash in the leaves ot Digitalis purpurea. M. Bleylf 

 affirms that he found in the herbaceous part as well as in the 

 flowers and seed of Achillea nobilis acetic acid containing 

 formic acid ; we have however reason to doubt the truth of 

 this. We have already mentioned in speaking of the aethereai 

 oils the acid from the flowers of Spiraea Ulmaria. 



M. H. Trommsdorff ** lately examined the sylvic acid found 

 in the resins of pines, and which was formerly considered, 

 without any reason, as an oxide of oil of turpentine; according 

 to M. Trommsdorff it is rather the oxide of a radical of C l0 

 H 15 . It crystallizes in large colourless rhomboidal tables, 

 and melts at 120° Reaum. M. Liebig,who examined the other 

 part of the colophony resin, the pinic acid, found it to have 

 the same composition, by which the isomery of both has 

 again been confirmed. 



M. Voget found ff in the dried leaves of Asperula odorata 



• Pfaff's Mittheilungen aus dem Gebiete der Pharm., etc. vol. i. part 3, 4. 



f Ann. de Chim. et de Physique, August 1835. 



% Geiger and Liebig's Ann. der Pharm., vol. xiv. part 2. 



§ Annalen der Phannacie, vol. xi. part 2. 



|| Pharm. Novellcn von Ehrmann, 1834, part 2. 



f Brand, Archivf. d. Pharm., vol. i. ii. and iii. 



** Geiger and Liebig's Ann. der Pharm., vol. xiii. 



ft Archiv fur Pharm., vol. iii. 



