S14 GENTIANACE A 
stance of an acidulous, persistently bitter taste, and a faint 
ventian-like odour. With basic acetate of lead, it produces an 
abundant yellow precipitate. Ophelic acid does not form. an 
insoluble compound with tannin ; it dissolves in water, alcohol 
and ether. The first solution causes the separation of protoxide 
of copper from an alkaline tartrate of that metal, 
A second bitter principle, Chiratin, C°®H*8O'', may be 
removed by means of tannic acid, with which it forms an in- 
‘soluble compound. Chiratin is a neutral, not distinctly crystal- 
line, light yellow hygroscopic powder, soluble in alcohol, ether 
and in warm water. By boiling hydrochloric acid, it is decom- 
posed into Chiratogenin, C!3H**O%, and Ophelic acid. Chirat- 
ogenin is a brownish, amorphous substance, soluble in alcohol 
but not in water, nor yielding a tannic compound. No sugar 
is formed in this decomposition. 
‘These results exhibit no analogy to those obtained in the 
‘analysis of the European gentians. Finally Héhn remarked in 
ehiretta a crystallisable, tasteless yellow substance, but its — 
quantity was so minute that no investigation of it could be 
made. The leaves of chiretta, dried at 100° C., afforded 7°5 
per cent. of ash; the stem 3:7, salts of potassium and calcium 
prevailing in both. (Op. cit. 2nd. Ed., p. 487.) 
~ Commerce.—Most of the chiretta of commerce is said to be 
collected in the Morung district of Nepal; it is packed i in large 
bales, which contain about 1 ewt., and arrives in India about 
_the end of March, when a stock may be laid in at about 2 annas 
Bee Ib. a inferior kind, known as Mitha kirayat, “sweet 
_ chiretta,” is frequently met with ; it is sometimes packed sepa- 
rately, a. sometimes mixed deans the true drug, but can be 
easily recognised by the almost complete absence of the cen- 
tral pith, and by its deficient bitterness. This spurious chiretta 
has been noticed in the London market and described by Prof. 
Bentley. (Pharm. Journ. [3] Ve, 481.) It is said to be derived 
from 8. angustifolia, H am. 
stems i ae some bundles of 
-Blborne in 1883 potest) a : 
oA Chiniia. dessa cua 
