THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



279 



in all — have likewise been temporarily 

 explained away by asserting the great 

 superiorly of the fresh kola nut and its 

 pharmaceutical preparations; the assumed 

 deterioration of the dried nut; the pres- 

 ence in fresh kola of a potent glucoside 

 kolanin which on drying partially decom- 

 poses into caffeine, theobromine and tan- 

 nins; the superiority of the glucoside as 

 compared with caflfeine pure and simple. 

 These assertions are gratuitous. They 

 are based, first, on wrong chemistry, and 

 second, on wrong therapy. Clinical re- 

 ports by the thousand attest, not the 

 marvels, but the utility and benefit of the 

 preparations of dried kola; and, to our 

 own knowledge, no careful physiological 

 or clinical comparison of the "fresh" and 

 the "dried" has ever been made. Yet 

 nothing short of such a comparison will 

 justify sweeping clinical conclusions. 

 With respect to the chemistry of kola, 

 we can profitably ponder the results ob- 

 tained by Professor Prescott and his pu- 

 pil, James W. T. Knox, as reported in 

 their admirable paper on the "Caffeine 

 Compound in Kola," presented to the A. 

 Ph. A. at Montreal. Messrs. Prescott 

 and Knox make clear : 



1. "There is much evidence tending 

 to show that this so-called glucoside is in 

 reality a mixture of t annates of caffeine 

 and theobromine.''^ 



2. The alleged "glucoside" — in real- 

 ity the cafieine compound of kola — is de- 

 composed, with liberation of free cafieine, 

 not only during the process of drying the 

 nuts, but also whenever it is exposed to 

 the action of heat or moisture. 



3. As far as reactions and physical 

 properties are concerned, barring a slight 

 disparity of elementary composition, no 

 radical difference has been found between 

 the natural and the artificial products, or 

 in other words, between the natural caf- 

 feine compound hitherto represented as 



the glucoside kolanin, and the artificially 

 prepared kola-tannate of caffeine. 



4. One-half of the total alkaloids in dry 

 kola exist in combination; in the fresh 

 seeds (carefully guarded from moisture), 

 more than sixty per cent, of the alkaloids 

 are combined. "It should also be noted 

 that, so far as the yield of alkaloids is 

 concerned, the moldy kola does not differ 

 from that in perfect preservation . ' ' 



Now, since the alleged glucoside is de- 

 composed by heat and moisture, what 

 possible advantage can a pharmaceutical 

 preparation of the fresh nuts enjoy over a 

 similar product of the dry nuts ? 



Since the difference between fresh and 

 dry kola, with respect to the proportion 

 of combined alkaloids, is at the outset 

 only a little over ten per cent. , and this 

 difference is totally nullified by decompo- 

 sition from moisture during manufacture, 

 is it not manifestly and palpably errone- 

 ous to declare the preparations of fresh 

 kola superior to products of dry kola 

 while ascribing the stimulant action to a 

 glucoside which is in reality only a de- 

 composed compound of tannates and caf- 

 feine ? 



If in aHdition to the researches of Pres- 

 cott and Knox, further testimony be re- 

 quired, we have it available in the article 

 published by Dr. Karl Dieterich of the 

 Helfenberg labratory, in the Pharmaceut- 

 ische Centralhalle of August 20, i8g6, 

 "On the Constituents of Fresh, Dried and 

 Roasted Kola Nuts." Using the method 

 of Jules Dean, Dieterich was unable to 

 find more than insignificant proportions 

 of so-called "kolanin" in the fresh, dried 

 or roasted fruits. He declares emphatic- 

 ally that the dried kola nuts afford the 

 most active material. — Bulletin of Phar- 

 macy. 



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