354 URTIOACEM 



formiDg a small one-seeded fig with a ricli purple bloom. 

 The shell is thin and fragile, the kernel, loose inside the shell, 

 is of the size of a large pea, brown, sub-globular, rugose, 

 especially upon the flatter side ; substance hard and very bitter. 



Chemical composiition. — When the sap of the tree is exhausted 

 with boiling alcohol, a mixture of vegetable albumin, gum and 

 wax remains undissolred, while a solution is formed, which 

 throws down, on cooling, wax, antiar-resln, and albumin. On 

 remoying the sediment and evaporating, more resin and wax 



deposited 



h in boiling water Antiarin, C^^H'^^0^+2H^0, 

 per cent, of the diued sap, crystallises- The 



purified 



Antiarin 



orms 



se 



the alcohol after boiling it 



with the sap of A. toxkaria^ consist of Antiar-resin^ C^'^H^ 



which mav be 



poisonous 



dry it has a glassy fracture, but becomes pasty if warmed. 



whilst antiarin causes death if introduced 

 into the circulation in minute portions, {Mulder in Gmelin^^ 

 Handbook, Vol. XVI., p, 217.) 



The wax deposited on cooling from an extract of the juice 

 prepared with hot alcohol, and purified by boiling with water, 

 is white and brittle, softening at 30°, and melting at 35 , sp. 

 gr. 1-016 at 20°. It is decomposed by nitric acid, blackened by 

 sulphuric acid, and not affected by hydrochloric acid or potash- 



ley. 



boiling 



per 



{Ibid., Vol. XVIII,, p. 358.) 



The seeds of the Indian plant, collected in Savant Vadi, 

 contain a crystalline principle, very bitter and poisonous, 

 resembling, if not identical with, antiarin. It is soluble in 

 water, alcohol, and very slightly in ether. It gives a reddish- 

 brown colour with sulphuric acid, and a yellowish or orange 

 colour with nitric acid. On allowing the dried extract to stand, 

 it does not readily crystallize out, but if the alcoholic extract 

 is dissolved in water, in which' it is quite soluble (showing 



