THE 

 LONDON, EDINBURGH and DUBLIN 



PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE 



AND 



JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



[THIRD SERIES.] 



SEPTEMBER 1842. 



XXVI. Chemical Examination of the Fruit of Menisper- 

 mum Cocculus (Semina Cocculi Indici). By William 

 Francis, Ph. Z).* 



lyOTWITHSTANDING the numerous investigations to 

 -*- which the grains of this plant have been submitted, much 

 doubt still remains respecting the constitution, and even with 

 regard to the existence of some of the many interesting bodies 

 said to occur in them. 



Boullayf, to whom we are indebted for the first exami- 

 nation, found in them a fatty oil, stearine, yellow extractive 

 colouring matter, picrotoxine,— to which he ascribed the 

 properties of an alkaloid, — menispermic acid, vegetable fibre, 

 albumen, and several of the inorganic salts usually contained 

 in plants. They were subsequently investigated by Casaseca J, 

 principally witn regard to the menispermic acid ; he showed 

 that no such acid existed in them, a fact which has been con- 

 firmed by all later researches. The same chemist, in con- 

 junction with Lecanu§, made the fatty bodies which occur in 

 this fruit the subject of a distinct treatise, which I shall 

 hereafter have occasion to notice more fully. Oppermann|| 

 and quite recently Regnaultf have published analyses of pi- 

 crotoxine. 



The most complete memoir on these grains is one published 

 by Peltier and Couerbe**. They describe in it two new alka- 

 loids, menispermine and paramenispermine, which are said to 

 occur in the shells, and a new acid, hypopicrotoxinic acid, and 

 they ascribe to picrotoxine acid properties. The manner in 



* Communicated by the Author. f Bulletin de Pharmacie, vol. iv. 



: Ibid, xiifcme Annee, Fev. 1826, p. 99. § Ibid. Janv. 1826, p. 55. 



II Mag. fur Pkarmaofe, xxxv. p. 233. 



f Ann. de Ckimie et de Phys.,\xvm. p.]57. ** Ann.der Pharm.B.x.[).18\. 



Phil. Mag. Si 3. Vol. 21. No. 137. Sept. 1842. M 



