41-3 
The principal uses now are those of economy, the juice of the fresh berries 
giving a saffron-colored dye, and that of the bark a beautiful yellow, A fine green 
pigment for water-coloring is made by the French from the ripe berries mixed with 
alum; this color, called Vert de Vesste, or sap-green, has been used as the principle 
for most of the foliage of the plates in this work. 
PART USED AND PREPARATION.—The fresh, ripe berries are pounded to 
a pulp, sufficient to separate them from the nutlets, and weighed. Then two parts 
by weight of alcohol are taken, the pulp thoroughly mixed with one-sixth part of 
it, and the rest of the alcohol added. The whole is then poured into a well-stop- 
pered bottle, and allowed to stand eight days in a dark, cool place, being shaken 
twice a day. 
The tincture, separated from this mass by pressing and filtering, is opaque ; 
in thin layers it exhibits an orange-red color by transmitted light; and a taste at 
once acid and astringent. 
CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS.—Xhamnocathartin.* <A bitter, brittle, yellow- 
ish, amorphous substance, soluble in water and alcohol, not soluble in ether; when 
fused it passes into a thick, yellow oil. 
Rhamnin, + C,,H,,0, + (H,O),.{—This glucoside, discovered in the berries 
by a Pontoise pharmacist named Fleury, in 1840, was isolated, named, and further 
studied by Lefort.§ Rhamnin, when pure, forms minute, yellow, translucent tables, 
scarcely soluble in cold water, soluble in hot alcohol, and breaks down as in the 
next body. 
Rhamnegine, C,,H,,O,,—This second glucoside of Lefort is in all respects, 
except solubility, identical in its physical and chemical properties with the preced- 
ing. When decomposed by heating with a dilute mineral acid, it breaks down into 
a crystallizable sugar, isomeric with mannite and rhammetin, C10. 
-Rhamnotannic Acid.—This tannin-like body, obtained in the separation of 
rhamnin, results as a greenish-yellowish, amorphous, friable, bitter mass, soluble 
in alcohol and insoluble in water. 
PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION.—The purgation following the ingestion of the 
ripe fruit of Rhamnus catharticus is, in almost every instance, accompanied by con- 
siderable thirst, dryness of the mouth and throat, and severe griping pains in the 
abdomen, A case is reported|| of the effects of eating the berries by a lad ; the 
symptoms were as follows: Eyes glistening and injected ; lips trembling; a simu- 
lation of trismus; the abdomen became hard and distended; colic; diarrhoea ; | 
respiration short and anxious; pulse variable; the skin was at one time warm, — 
at another cold; the boy was unable to rise, could not walk, and seemed to 
ennai ns matt 
* Cathartin + Rhamneitne (Gallatly, 1858) ; Chrysorhamnine (Schutzeberger and Bertiche, 1865). 
t CygH,jOy (Schutzenberger). Jour. de Phar., 1856, p. 420. Leopold, Carp. Woch., 1850. 
