112 



masses; is insoluble iii water, alcohol, ether, diluted acids, and 

 alkalies, dissolves unaltered in fuming sulphuric acid, is destroyed 

 by nitric acid and chlorine, dissolves in alkalies in the presence of 

 a reducing substance, as subsulphate of iron, grape-sugar, &c. 

 The solutions contain indigo-whiterrCie H5 NO + HO, which 

 forms again Indigo-blue on contact with the aii\ 



IllOSit = C12 H12 O12 + 4 HO. Found in the gi-een fruit of 

 Phaseolus vulgaris, Pisum sativum and Robmia Pseudacacia, in 

 the leaves of Brassica oleracea. Digitalis purpurea, and Taraxacum 

 officinale, in the shoots of Solanum tuberosum, in the herb and 

 gi"een fruit of Asparagus officinalis, in Agaricus piperitus, A. 

 croceus, and others. Bruise the husks of French beans, press, 

 evaporate the juice to a syrup, and mix with alcohol, sufficient to 

 produce a permanent turbidity; the crystals, which will have 

 formed, are purified by repeatedly recrystallising in water, with 

 aid of animal charcoal. — Rhombic, tabular crystals, one inch long 

 and about a quai-ter inch thick, or cauliflower-like conglomera- 

 tions, of a pure, sweet taste, without rotation, turn opaque in dry 

 air, over sulphuric acid, or at 100°, and lose all their water of 

 crystallisation, fuse only above 210°, afterwards decomjiosed, 

 dissolve in 6 parts cold water, slightly in strong alcohol, not in 

 absolute alcohol and in ether, yield with nitric acid oxalic acid,, 

 dissolve in sulphuric acid, when cold or heated to 100°, without 

 colouration, but become black in higher temperatures. Is not 

 altered on boiling either with diluted sulphuric acid or with 

 alkalies and alkaline earths, does not reduce the alkaline tartarate 

 of copper, and does not ferment with yeast. 



IllUlilir::Ci2 Hio Oio- Occurs throughout the whole order of 

 CompositfB, replacing the starch and especially contained in the 

 roots, but has also been met with in other plants, and seems to be 

 widely distributed. In the living plant it exists dissolved in the 

 cellular juice, from which it may be precipitated by means of 

 water-absorbing agents as alcohol, glycerin, calcium-chloride, (fee, 

 under the form of white, tasteless granules similar to starch, but 

 assuming a brown instead of a blue colour with solutions of 

 iodine. [According to Sachs, Inulin is obtained in "sphsero- 

 ciystals" by immersing the roots of Compositse in alcohol or 

 glycerin.] In the dried plant it appears (as observed under the 

 microscope) under the form of brittle, pellucid, amorphous masses, 

 soluble by access of water but reprecipitated by alcohol. — It is 

 prepared by boiling the sixbstance in question, after exliaustion 

 with ether and alcohol, with the least possible quantity of water 

 for a quarter of an hour, straining or filtering hot, and allowing 

 to cool, when a portion of the Inulin will separate, another portion 

 being obtainable by evaporating and cooling as before, while the 

 rest becomes converted into gum and subsequently into sugar. 



