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INFLUENCE OF AGE AND SOIL ON CIN= 

 CHONA TREES. 



Mr. P. Van Leersum, the director of 

 the government Cinchona plantations 

 in Java, has recently published a further 

 communication on his researches into the 



effect of age, soil and condition ol health 

 upon the alkaloids in living cinchona 

 trees. A further analytical examination 

 of fifty specimens of officinalis bark show 

 that the exceptionally high percentage 

 of alkaloids which had previously been 

 observed in certain specimens of the spe- 

 cies officinalis is not the result of cultiva- 

 tion. These unusually rich trees are 

 either sporadic exceptions or they may 

 represent a definite chemical variety with- 

 in the limits of the same botanical spe- 

 cies. The last fifty specimens analyzed 

 did not include a single one exceeding 

 the average alkaloidal proportions of the 

 officinalis. 



Continued investigations relating to 

 the increase and decline of the alkaloidal 

 richness of cinchona trees show that in 

 diseased trees, the cinchonidine percent- 

 age increases at the expense of the qui- 

 nine percentage. Van Leersum supports 

 this statement by quoting thirteen analy- 

 sis, of which the three following are par 

 ticularly interesting : 



Cinchou 

 Quinine, idiue. 

 p. c. p. c 

 Succiruba and Ledger hybrid, healthy tree . 10.7 o. 



The same tree diseased 417 4.90 



The same tree 1 year later 3.25 5.07 



The analyses were made with the dry 

 bark. Six other experiments show the 

 harmful effect of an exhausted or poor 

 soil upon the alkaloidal richness of cin- 

 chona bark, although cuttings of trees, 

 impoverished in consequence of unsuit- 

 ability of the soil, grafted upon healthy 

 trunks appear to return to their original 

 richness. Trees containing 10 29 per 

 cent, of quinine while growing on good 

 soil declined to 6.54 per cent, when trans- 

 ferred to a poor soil. One instance is 

 given in which a healthy five-year-old 

 tree contained 10.33 per cent, of quinine; 

 at the age of fifteen, exhaustion of the 

 soil had reduced the quinine percentage 

 in the same tree to 6.06 — Chemist and 

 Druggist. 



