ee en eee ea 
LEGUMINOSZ. 517 
: vegetables particularly acceptable to the gods; the others 
are Bauhinia malabarica, Amarantus gangeticus, Celosia 
 argentea, and Phalangiwm tuberosunt. 
Description.—Leaflets 8 pairs, obovate, obtuse, glabrous, 
the terminal pair being much the largest, all folding up closely 
at- night; flowers axillary, generally in pairs, dull yellow; 
_ legumes about 6 inches long, narrow, quadrangular, about § of © 
_ an inch in diameter, containing numerous elongated, very hard 
_ greyish seeds, the ends of which appear as if cut off obliquely. 
_ The whole plant has a fetid smell. The leaves when full 
_ grown are mucilaginous, and have a nauseous taste, but when 
_ young they are much used as a vegetable. 
 . Chemical composition.—The seeds have been examined by 
Elborne (Pharm. Journ., Sept. 22nd, 1888), who found them to 
have the following percentage composition:— — 
Water oii (a Nl ode tes oe Oe et Se 
Petroleum ether extract ... so see ese vee 9°75 
Ether extract baa Se0 vee ON: eens 86 
Absolute alcohol extract nth pibee. ¢ ven. en,  ee 
Watery extract — seu one eve sen) vee, ves- 2000 
The ethereal extract and the alcoholic extract contained a 
_ glucosidal substance of a yellow colour insoluble in water, — 
soluble in alcohol and in watery solutions of potash with a 
blood-red colour. These solutions are precipitated by hydro- 
_ chloric acid. The precipitate has great analogies with chryso- 
- phanic acid, but according to Elborne appears to correspond 
_ With emodin in composition. Emodin (C1%H'°0*) is trioxy- 
 methylanthraquinone and chrysophanic acid dioxymethy- 
 lanthraquinone. The properties of the plant are due to the 
_ presence of emodin. In order to extract it the powdered seeds 
should be treated with dilute alcohol, the tincture filtered, and 
water, acidalated with hydrochloric acid, boiled for ten minutes, 
and when cold agitated with ether which dissolves the emodin, 
Emodin agrees with chrysophanic acid in most of its properties, 
