346 Ibervillea Sonorae 



solutions rendered alkaline with sodium carbonate^ and any 

 alkaloids extracted with ether. Each residue was treated thrice 

 with fresh ether. The ether extracts were allowed to evaporate 

 to dryness spontaneously. The resultant dry residues, which 

 were yellowish in color and very bitter, were used in the tests 

 referred to below :^ 



Chemical tests. Samples of the various residues obtained by 

 the above described method were dissolved in dilute hydrochloric 

 acid or alcohol and tested with common reagents for alkaloids. 

 White, amorphous precipitates were obtained with potassium 

 hydroxid, phosphomolybdic acid, phosphotungstic acid and 



tannic acid. 



Precipitates failed to form with solutions of picric acid, platinic 

 chlorid, iodin in potassium iodid solution, bromin in hydro- 

 bromic acid solution, potassium sulphocyanid, potassium chro- 

 mate, potassium dichromate, potassium iodid, mercuric chlorid, 

 potassium ferrocyanid, potassium ferricyanid.^ 



The material in the extracts gave color reactions with the fol- 

 lowing reagents: Sulfuric acid, Erdmann's reagent, sulphovana- 

 dic acid, and Frohde's reagent. None of these results was char- 

 acteristic of any particular alkaloid, however, nor were mixtures 

 of alkaloids suggested. 



The reaction with sulfuric acid and potassium permanganate 

 in its first stages resembled the coloration obtained with strych- 

 nin in the oxidation test, but it failed to exhibit the successive 

 changes of coloration characteristic of che alkaloid in that reac- 

 tion. The color was not given with any other oxidizing reagents 

 in sulfuric acid. According to Wormley, this reaction, if potas- 

 sium permanganate is employed as the oxidizing agent, is given 



* The yellow color changed to orange. 



2 While we were removing residue from one of the evaporation dishes, 

 an associate who was fully ten feet away and who knew nothing about the 

 peculiar qualities of the residue, expressed surprise at a bitter taste he 

 suddenly experienced. The very minute amount of dust that was formed 

 as we carefully scraped the residue from the dish accounted for the experi- 

 ence referred to, which gives a good idea of the extreme bitterness of the 

 material. 



3 Precipitates formed by reaction between the solvent and the reagent 

 are here ignored. 



