122 APPENDIX, 
afforded a mixture. It was our intention to have determined the 
ultimate composition of the saponin in combination with lead, to 
which we have referred as a ‘“‘viscid yellow compound,” and to 
have examined the product yielded by the hydrolysis of the saponin, 
but we were unable to complete our research. 
The results of the proximate analysis of the false Bikhma may be 
stated thus :— 
Pe ws oe ious 
Petroleum ether extract.., 
Acid ether extract Eee ee kee 
Alkaline ether extract ... as oe 
Chloroform extract Se 
Amylic alcohol extract ... ee 
e also append the results of an analysis of the specimen of 
10 
A, palmatum referred to above. Our parts afforded the follow- 
ing results when examined by Dragendorff' s method :— 
Petroleum ether extract... Si “040 
Ether extract ure 2 O48 
= Absolute alcohol seek. <i *150 
Water extract... ail ie ee 
An alcoholic extract affords the following percentages :— 
Petroleum ether extract ... ets oe Siig Se 
cid ether extract Bee Shes se 
Alkaline ether extract nee ne cax OEE 
Amylic alcohol extract a se wv Heo 
The compositions of these extracts we were also unable to examine, 
y summarise our results by stating that the most important 
sonnidtasae of false Bikhma are saponin, and as bearing on the 
identification of the plant which yields the drug, we would refer to 
Aitchison’s “Notes on Products of Afghanistan and Persia,” in 
which it is stated that the name Beth is technically applied to the 
root-stocks of Acanthophyllum macrodon.and Gypsophila fees 
These are both used as soaps, and possibly false Bikhma may 
derived from one of these plants. (C. J. H. Warden and Assistant 
Surgeon Chuni Lal Bose in “ —— Journ,” October 15¢h, 1892, 
Pp. 302.) 
