EUFHORBIACEM 299 



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Description, — Kamala is a red powder, which varies in 

 depth of colour, mixed with it are greenish-yellow fragments of 

 the capsule of the plant ; like lycopodium it is inflammable and 

 resists admixture with water- Alcohol and ether dissolve a 

 considerable portion of it^ and the solution poured in water 

 emits a melon-like odour. 



Microscopic structure, — Each grain of Kam^la is a spherical 

 body, consisting of an outer delicate membrane within which 

 may be seen a structureless mass of yellow colour^ in which are 

 embedded numerous club-shaped cells, arranged with their 

 thick ends outwards ; in order to examine these cells the drug 

 must be exhausted of its resin by alcohol or potash. The 

 hairs which are found mixed with the glands are stellate, each 

 hair being one-celled and thick- walled. 



Chemical conii^osition. — Pure Kamala contains only between '5 

 and 3-5 per cent, of moisture, and yields to ether? alcohol, amyl 

 alcohol, glacial acetic acid, or carbon disulphido^ about 80 per 

 cent, of resin, which is also soluble in alkalies, but not in benzine, 

 and whose alcoholic solution is coloured dingy-green by ferric 

 chloride, (FlucJciger.) Leube (1860) analyzed a sample of Kamdla 

 which yielded nearly 29 per cent, of ash» 47 'C of rcsin^ and 

 19 '7 of other soluble matters, consisting of citric, oxalic, and 

 tannic acids, gums, &c. Cold alcohol dissolved a resin, 



Ci5g;i80\ fusible at 80*='C., and left a more sparingly soluble 

 resin, C^H^^O^ melting at 191^0. Both resins are brittle, 

 reddish -yellow, soluble in alkalies with a red colour, not altered 

 by dilute acids, and when treated with nitric acid yield oxaKo 

 acid. Leube could not obtain Anderson's Rottlerin^ C'^H^^O' 

 or C^^H^^O^ (1855), which crystallized from the concentrated 

 ethereal tincture in yellow silky needles. Groves (1872) 

 ascertained that it is easily modified by exposure to air, 

 and is consequently obtained only from the recent drug, 

 Fliickiger subsequently observed that on being fused with 

 potassa, rottlerin jiiAii^paraoxyhenzoic acid, Anderson's resinous 

 colouring matter has the compositiom C^^H-^^O^ melts at 100^ 0., 

 is easily soluble in alcohol and ether, and yields with lead acetate 



