250 J. C. Marquart's Report on the Progress of Phytochemisiry 



inulin could not be considered as an unclianged part of the 

 plant, and I (M. Marquart) therefore made several experi- 

 ments on it* to separate the unchangeable matter, to which 

 inulin owes its origin. I succeeded in insulating from thick- 

 roots (tubers so called) of Gcorgina variabilis a milky liquid 

 (by the method for making starch): the milkiness, as could be 

 perceived on its being greatly magnified, was caused by very 

 small globules, which were quite diaphanous and round, dif- 

 fering from the starch granules in not settling from the liquid 

 and not being coloured blue by iodine. I, however, succeed- 

 ed in separating them by freeezing the liquid, and was able 

 to wash them with water and to examine them more closely. 

 I discovered in them the basis of the substances which have 

 been named Inulin and Dahlin, and intend to give to the first 

 the name of Synantherine^ on account of its occurrence in the 

 Composited or Synantherce, and to consider it as a substance 

 analogous to starch. 1 propose for the two last substances the 

 name of Sinistrine, on account of their analogy with Dextrine, 

 as Biot and Persoz have already discovered that inulin turns 

 the plane of polarization to the left. 



M. Koene, who examined the roots of Anacyclus Pyrethrum^ 

 extracted from them 57 per cent, of inulin (sinistrine)f, which 

 is remarkable on account of the quantity, if there is no error 

 in his statement. The mealy sediment of lichens (Flechten- 

 satzmehl), the original form of which we are yet ignorant of, 

 presents a similar case. M. Guerinf has also examined this, 

 but only the soluble part, which he calls Lichenin. He pre- 

 pared it from Cetraria islandica, by filtering the hot decoction 

 and precipitating it with alcohol. After dissolving and precipi- 

 tating several times, it is in the dry state yellowish, swells in 

 water, and is then void of colour, smell, and taste. Lichenine 

 dissolves easily in hot water, less in cold ; the solution is co- 

 loured blue by iodine, but weaker than by amidine, with which 

 it has the same elementary composition, namely C5 Hj^ O^. 

 It forms sugar with sulphuric acid, and with nitric acid oxalic 

 acid in a much larger quantity than any other substance of 

 the vegetable kingdom, so far as we at present are acquainted 

 with vegetable substances. 



M. F. Nees von Esenbeck^ wrote a supplement to my [M. 

 Marquart's] memoir on Inulin, in which he expresses the opi- 

 nion, that the so-named Bassorin is the insoluble matter of 

 the Bassora and tragacanth gums, the membranes of the torn 



• Geiger and Liebig's Annalen der Phnrmacie, x. 1. 



t Ann. de C/iimie et de Phynque, July 1835, 



X Journ. de Chim. Med.y ix. 



§ Geiger and Liebig's Ann. der Phcmn. 



