2i2 THE JOURNAL OF PHARMACOLOGY. 



logical importance, however, as the writer took the entire yield from 250 

 gm. of the drug without any effect whatever. 



The resinous residue after the extraction with acidulated water, weigh- 

 ing 7 per cent, of the drug, agrees in its properties with that found by- 

 Clark. It is soft when freshly extracted, but becomes hard and brittle on 

 keeping. Its taste is slightly astringent. Clark states its melting point to- 

 be 40 C. It is acid in reaction. By neutralizing with an alkali, concentrat- 

 ing and allowing to stand, Clark obtained colorless crystals of cooling sa- 

 line taste, insoluble in hot or cold alcohol, chloroform or ether. He also 

 found that it cannot be separated into different parts by treatment with 

 portions of alcohol of different strengths ; hence he concludes that it is 

 an unmixed resin. It is soluble in benzol, alcohol, ether, chloroform or 

 acetic ether, but it is precipitated from solution upon the addition of ben- 

 zine, in which it is insoluble. It is insoluble also in water ; but, by form- 

 ing a salt with the alkali, it dissolves in an alkaline aqueous men- 

 strum. 



The remainder of the drug was again dried and extracted with freshly 

 distilled absolute alcohol. The total alcoholic extract was 7.07 per cent, 

 of the weight of the drug. The residue after the evaporation of the sol- 

 vent was a dark brown or black color, and of a purely astringent taste. 

 It was almost entirely dissolved by hot water, which on cooling deposited 

 an amorphous precipitate soluble in ammonia with a deep red color. The 

 residue in the extraction flask was insoluble in hot water, but dissolved 

 readily in dilute ammonia water. The neutral aqueous solution was of a 

 reddish-yellow color, which was much deepened on the addition of an al- 

 kali. With ferric chloride it yielded an intense greenish-black color and 

 with lead acetate a heavy white precipitate, but with gelatin or albumen 

 only a slight precipitate was produced— showing the presence of traces 

 only of tannin. The acidified aqueous solution yielded to chloroform only 

 a small quantity of a yellowish coloring- matter, soluble in water and of a 

 slightly astringent taste. In alkaline solution theaqueous extract yielded 

 the same substance. 



The aqueous extract of the drug contains a large'quantity of a red color- 

 ing matter. On evaporation it leaves it as an amorphous, brown mass, 

 insoluble in alcohol but dissolved by an alkali with marked deepening of 

 the color. The neutral aqueous solution has a very slightly astringent 

 and nauseating saline taste. It strikes an intense greenish-brown color 

 with ferric chloride, but does not precipitate ; with lead acetate or barium 

 hydroxide it produces heavy, whitish precipitates, the supernatant liquid 

 becoming colorless. 



In this aqueous extract, which is decidedly acid in'reaction, Clark found 

 a small quantity of tannin, and an acrid substance having nearly all the 

 properties of saponin, which he names Grindelin. In the present analysis 



