174 GLUCOSIDES OTHER THAN TANNINS. 



■vritli which it splits up into sugar and melanthigenin when boileil 

 with a dihite acid. 



The so-called smilaciti was also formerly regarded as allied to 

 saponin, but the researches of Fliickiger^ have sIioaati that under 

 this designation a mixture of substances has been described, the 

 principal constituent of Avhich was named loarilUn. This body 

 stands in close relation to sapogenin, the decomposition-product 

 of saponin ; and as the latter is contained in sarsaparilla,- it is 

 probable that parillin is produced from it during the life of the 

 plant. According to Fliickiger, parillin is not soluble in cold water 

 to any appreciable extent, but dissolves in 20 parts of boiling. It 

 is taken up by spirit of sp. gr. 0-83 more easily than by stronger 

 or weaker alcohol.^ Its reaction with cone, sulphuric acid re- 

 sembles that of saponin. Boiled with 1 per cent, sulphuric acid 

 it decomposes into sugar and parigenin, with production of a 

 «rreen fluorescence. A similar fluorescence is also observed when 

 hydrochloric acid gas acts upon a solution in a mixture' of chloro- 

 foim and alcohol. 



Scqjogen'm resembles parillin in most of its properties. Roch- 

 leder is of opinion that it still retains a little sugar, and is there- 

 fore really the result of an incomplete decomposition of saponin. 

 The violet colouration gradually produced when sapogenin is 

 dissolved in cone, sulphuric acid serves to distinguish the body 

 from clig'dorcsln, which, according to Schmiedeberg, yields a yellow 

 solution. (See § 155.) 



Tndk(cn may also be mentioned here, as, although it is not a 

 substance that can be unconditionally ranked as a glucoside, it 

 may nevertheless be compared with them as regards its constitu- 

 tion. By the decomposition of indican indigo-blue is produced, 

 together with a kind of sugar called indiglucin. I leave it, how- 

 ever, an open question whether the formation of indigo-blue is 

 preceded by that of indigo-Avhite, which, it is true, readily yields 

 that' substance by absorption of oxygen. Indican appeal's to 

 occui- in many plants (leaves, etc.), but to undergo a partial 

 decomposition when they are slowly dried, and the black or blue 



1 Compare Fliickiger and Hanbury, ' Pharmacographia,' 646. 



- Otten, ' Histiol. Unters, der Sarsaparillen,' Diss. Dorpat, 1876. Otten 

 estimated the saponin by the methods given in § 78. 



»Archiv d. Pharm. ['■!>], x. 535, 1877 (Pharm. Journ. and Trans. [3], viii. 

 488). 



