58 CINCHONA BARKS. 
SECTION XIill. 
CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS OF THE CINCHONA BARKS. 
An odor is not entirely foreign to the Cinchona barks ; Weddell’ 
found it, ¢. g., in the case of fresh Calisaya and amygdalifolia, to 
resemble that of elder bark, although more feeble. Also in some 
varieties of commercial barks, ¢. ¢., that of flava fibrosa (p. 44) and 
of Loxa (p. 47), a slight aroma cannot be entirely ignored. 
slight aromatic odor is already perceived when the powdered fresh 
bark of the Indian C. succirubra is dried with milk of lime. Hesse’ 
also makes mention of an odorous principle in the Cinchona barks. 
The barks of some of the Rubiaceze which are most closely re- 
lated to the Cinchonas, have a decidedly agreeable odor, thus, e. 2., 
that of Ferdinandusa chlorantha Pohl (Gomphosia chlorantha 
Weddell). 
In regard to the taste, there occur, in part, significant distinctions. 
Younger barks have a predominating, but not disagreeably astrin- 
gent taste (saveur styptigue of Delondre and Bouchardat), more 
rarely, as, e. g., those of Huanuco and Loxa, at the same time 
astringent acidulous, although to a less extent. In trunk barks the 
astringent tang becomes more and more lost, and the pure bitter 
taste appears strong and prominent. 
' In the case of the Calisaya, the pure bitterness appears even with 
young barks, while the more diminutive C. scrobiculata always 
possesses the astringent tang, which occasionally predominates. 
In the C. pubescens, which is likewise poor in alkaloid, Weddell? 
perceived, even in fresh trunk barks, only a somewhat bitter and 
at the same time nauseating taste. 
A disagreeable and at the same time a somewhat sharp tang is 
observed in the so-called Cinchona (China) Faén vel Parad fusca, 
in which the Cinchona bases are wanting; its botanical origin is 
not known.* 
Among the universally distributed principles of the vegetable 
kingdom, which also occur in Cinchona barks, prominence has 
already been given to the directly observable starch and calcium 
oxalate. Since the latter is in crystalline granules and only 
1 Hist. Nat. des Quinguinas, pp. 33, 45- 
2 Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft, 1877, p. 2162. 
8 Hist. nat. p. 56, Note 2. 
* Compare Fliickiger’s Pharmakognosic, first edition, 1867, pp. : ye , where, 
however, the structure of true Cinchona barks has erroneously con poten to this 
