Nutrition Investigations. 321 



A LEVXTLAN PREPARATION. 



Commercial Squills, consisting of the dried and broken leaves of 

 the bulbs of Scilla maritima (or Urginea Scilla Stenh.) yield, as dis- 

 covered by Schmiedeberg (318), the levulan sinistrin. They were 

 finely ground in a coffee mill, and the sinistrin prepared according to 

 Schmiedeberg's directions. To the dry powder siifficient water was 

 added to make a thin cream, and then a saturated lead acetate solu- 

 tion imtil further addition produced no precipitate. To the clear, 

 straw-colored filtrate, freed from lead with hydrogen sulphide, was 

 added freshly prepared milk of Hme, with constant stirring, until a 

 somewhat creamy consistency was produced. To facilitate the for- 

 mation of sinistrin-calcium carbonate, this mixture was concentrated 

 on the water bath for some time (as suggested by Reidemeister) [314]. 

 The precipitate was then sucked dry on a Biichner funnel, washed 

 thoroughly with cold water (being rubbed up in a mortar for the pur- 

 pose), again sucked dry, rubbed to a cream with water, and treated 

 with carbon dioxide until the fluid was no longer alkaline to litmus. 

 After heating to facilitate the complete separation of the calcium 

 carbonate, the sinistrin in solution was filtered off, a little oxalic acid 

 carefully added to remove the last traces of lime, and the solution then 

 decolorized with charcoal, and evaporated to a syrup at a temperature 

 of about 40° C. From this solution the sinistrin was precipitated with 

 95 per cent alcohol, as a white gummy mass. Transferred to abso- 

 lute alcohol, and allowed to stand 24-36 hours it became very tenacious, 

 but on longer standing, with occasional stirring, it grew brittle, and 

 finally crumbled to a coarse white powder, which was dried in a 

 vacuum desiccator. This material was readily soluble in cold water. 

 (According to Schmiedeberg [318], even solutions of 20-30 per cent 

 are not syrup-like.) It gave no color with iodine, did not reduce 

 Fehling's solution, and w^as not precipitated by it. This preparation, 

 at first, contained 13 per cent moisture and 0.76 per cent ash. De- 

 termination of the specific rotation then gave the following results: 

 A 2 per cent solution in a 200 mm. tube, read —1.32°; corrected for 

 moisture and ash, [a\-D = —38.2°. After longer standing (three 

 months) over sulphuric acid, the moisture content was 4.8 per cent, 

 and determination of specific rotation gave the foUowmg results: 

 A 1 per cent solution in a 200 mm. tube, read —0.55°; corrected for 

 moisture and ash, [a]D = —29.1°. Schmiedeberg (318) found the 

 average for [a]D = —41.4°, and Reidemeister (314), [oId = —34.6°. 

 It is impossible to account for these differences. Reidemeister claims 



