THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



15 



NEW REriEDIES. 



Pinapine. — This eminently fancy name is 

 used for so simple a body as pine apple juice, 

 the recently extracted juice when allowed 

 to ferment, gives a white liquid, having 

 the characteristic odor of the pine apple. It is 

 recommended for stomachic disorders, es- 

 specially acidity and chronic c^-xtdsrh.— Rund- 

 schau. 



Quinine Carbonate. — This salt is recom- 

 mended as being far less bitter than the ordi- 

 nary salts of quinine. It crystallizes in fine 

 needles of the composition C20H24NO2.H2- 

 COj.HoO. It is fairly soluble in water, and 

 easily so in acids, of course, as the CO 2 is 

 thereby evolved. — Repertoire de Pharmacie. 



Drimys Granatensis. — Some time ago, Schu- 

 chardt stated that this bark contained contoine- 

 Hesse has, however, made a very careful exam- 

 ination of the bark, and denies this. He ex- 

 tracted, however, a body CiaHj^Oj, which he 

 terms drimine, as a white crystalline powder. 

 It is easily soluble in hot alcohol and chloro- 

 form, but not in ether, alkalies or water. It 

 appears to be an indifferent kind of body, and 

 contains neither hydroxyl or alkyi-oxy groups. 

 Besides drimine, Hesse has found a white pow- 

 dery substance of acid reaction, very slightly 

 soluble in water, but dissolving in lime water to 

 form a neutral solution. This he terms drimic 

 acid. From the leaves, drimol Ca^Hs^Oj was 

 extracted by alcohol in small white needles. 

 This body melts at 73°-74°, and distils un- 

 changed. On acetylation it becomes acetyl- 

 drimol C2sH5-(C2H,,0)Oo in white tablets, 

 melting at 42°-43°. — Liebig's Annalen. 



Essential Oils. — Cedro oil, the oil from citrus 

 medica, differs somewhat from citron oil in 

 physical and chemical properties. It forms a 

 yellow liquid of some pleasant taste. Its specific 

 gravity is .871 and its optical activity +67°. 8^. 

 The genuine oil is said to be unobtainable in 

 commerce. It is veiy expensive and usually 

 adulterated with citron oil. Natural wintergreen 

 oil has recently been investigated, and minute 

 differences detected between the oil from Gaul- 

 theria and that from the birch. That from 

 Gaultheria contains 99 per cent, of methyl 

 salicylate, and the remaining i per cent, con- 

 sists of a paraffin, probably triacontaneCjoHea, 

 an aldehyde or ketone, a secondary alcohol 

 CgHifiO, and ester C14H23O0 ; to the latter the 

 oil probably owes its small optical activity-. The 

 birch oil contains 99.8 per cent, of methyl 

 salicylate, traces of the parafiin and of an ester 

 C11H24O2. It is optically inactive. Coriander 



oil has also received some attention. The oil 

 from the entire fresh flowering plant was found 

 to the extent of .12 per cent. It had a specific 

 gravity of .853. It is not soluble in 70 per cent, 

 alcohol. After standing for a few months, its 

 specific gravity rises to .856 and its optical 

 activity becomes +i°2'. The oil from the half 

 ripe herb, with the fruit, has a yield of .17 per 

 cent. It has a specific gravity of .866 and a 

 rotation of +7°io'. It is soluble in three parts 

 of 70 per cent, alcohol. Its specific gravity 

 rises on keeping to .S69. The oil from the ripe 

 coriander fruit is yielded to the extent of .83 

 per cent, and has a specific gravity of .876 and 

 an optical activity of +io°48'. It is soluble in 

 three parts of 70 per cent. Si\zo\^o\.—SchimmeVs 

 Berichte. 



Digitalis. — Hendrix contributes a useful 

 paper on the active principles of digitalis to the 

 current number of the Annates de Pharmacie. 

 In view of the discussions on the therapeutic 

 value of the commercial products, a short 

 resume of the paper will not be out of place. 

 Schmiedeberg isolated, sometime ago, fou^ 

 distinct bodies. He distinguished these as (i) 

 digitonine, (2) digitaleine, soluble in water; 

 and (3) digitaline, (4) digitoxide, insoluble in 

 water. No one of these must be confounded 

 with the commercial or official products, which 

 are almost universally mixtures. According to 

 Merck, the pure amorphous digitaline of the 

 Codex and of the Belgian Pharmacopceia, is 

 chiefly the true digitaline of Schmiedeberg with 

 a little digitoxine, whilst the crystalline digi- 

 taline of the Codex is almost entirely digitoxine. 

 The powdered digitaline of German commerce 

 (there is no official product) is principally 

 digitaleine with a little digitonine and digi- 

 taline. Merck's digitoxine is the pure digi- 

 toxine— the most active principle of the drug. 

 Kiliani states that the bodies extracted from the 

 leaf are quite different from those in the seeds; 

 and digitaline does not occur in the leaves, ac- 

 cording to this authority. If this is correct, it 

 follows that the digitaline of the Ph. Belg. con- 

 tains no digitaline at all, as it is prepared from 

 the leaves. As the commercial products are 

 extracted from the seeds, the difference in the 

 therapeutic action of the glucosides and the in- 

 fusion is easily explained. Whilst Kiliani does 

 not agree with the statement of Schmiedeberg 

 iu all particulars, he admits the same formula 

 for digitaline as does the latter chemist, viz., 

 C5HSO2, or some multiple of it. With all this 

 uncertainty as to what one is really using, it is 

 by no means surprising that the therapeutic 

 results are found to be so very variable and un- 

 certain, and it is to be hoped that the chemistry 

 and manuf cture of the digitalis principles will 

 be undertaken on a more definite basis in the 

 future. — 77i!^ British and Colonial Druggist. 



