G92 



LTLTACE^. 



Chemical Composition — The most abundant among the coiisti- 

 tuents of squill are mucilaginous and saccharine matters. Mucilage ma,y 

 be precipitated by means of neutral and basic acetate of lead, yet there 

 remains in solution another substance of the same class, called Slnistrin. 

 It was discovered in 1870 by Schmiedeberg, who obtained it by mixing 

 the powder of squill, either red or white, with a solution of basic acetate 

 of lead in shght excess. .The gumm}^ matters thus forming insoluble 

 lead compounds "being removed, the liquid is deprived of the lead and 

 mixed with slaked lime. An insoluble compound of sinistrin and cal- 

 cium separates and yields the former on decomposing the well washed 

 precipitate with carbonic acid. The small amount of calcium remaining 

 m the filtrate is to be removed by adding cautiously to the warm solu^ 

 tion the small quantity just required of oxalic acid. Lastly, sinistrin is 

 thrown down by alcohol. It is a white amorphous powder, on exposure 

 to^air soon forming transparent brittle lumps. The composition of sinis- 

 trin Ls that of dextrin = C'ffW, both these substances being very closely 

 alhed, yet the aqueous solution of sinistrin deviates the plane of polariza- 

 tion to the left. The rotatory power appears not to be much influenced 

 by the concentration or the temperature of the solution of sinistrin. 



Analkalme solution of tartrate of copper is not acted upon by sinistrin. 

 it is transformed into sugar by boiling it for half an hour with water 

 containing 1 per cent, of sulphuric acid. The sugar thus produced is stated 

 by hchmiedeberg to consist of Ipevulose' and another sugar, which in all 

 probability, when perfectly pure, must prove devoid of rotatory power. 

 Ihe name sinistrin' has also been applied to a mucilaginous matter 

 extracted from ^barley (see Hordeum decorticatum) ; it remains to be 

 proved that the latter is identical with the sinistrin of squill. 



We have obtained a considerable amount of an uncrystaUizable 

 levogyre sugar by exhausting squill with dilute alcohol.' Alcohol added 

 to an aqueous infusion of squill causes the separation of the mucilnge, 

 together with albuminoid matter. If the alcohol is evaporated and a 

 solution of tannic acid is added, the latter will combine with the Utter 

 im7ic?^9^e of squill, which has not yet been isolated, although several 

 chemists have devoted to it their investigations, and applied to it the 

 names of ScilMm or Shulein, SchrofT, to whom we are indebted for a 

 valuable monograph on Squill,^ infers from his physiological experimeDts 

 the presence of a non-volatile acrid principle (Skulein?), together with 

 seilhtm, which latter he supposes to be a glucoside. 



Merck of Darmstadt has isolated Sdllipicrin, soluble in water; 

 ^p^^^^te^7^, hkewise a bitter principle, insoluble in water, but readily 

 mssolving in alcohol; and Scillin, a crystalline substance, abundantly 

 ^? o .?/"! ^""^^^S ether. The physiological action of these substances and 

 n^-tn !^ has been examined (1878) by Moeller, and by Jarmersted 

 th t f 'd^ -J r ^^^^^^^"^^"^"^ ^^^ scillain was found to be analogous to 



^ This is the name applied to the Itevo- 

 pate nncrystallizaLle glucose produced 

 ^getherwithcrystalhzahldextr^-J^^^^^^^^ 



for hmli^ ^"'"^ P'^P'^^'^' ^y ^^-i^^^*' 

 ■' In Greece they have even attempted to 



manufacture alcohol by fennenting ana 

 distilling sciuill bulbs. —Heldreich, Nutz- 

 jyflanzen Oriechenlands, 1862. 7. 



* Reprinted from the Zeitf^chrifi der he- 

 sellschaft der Aerzte zu Wieti, "^o. 42 (1SC4). 

 Abstracted also in Canstatt's JahresbenrM 

 1864. 19, and 1865. 2.18. 



