438 DR ANDERSON ON THE COLOURING MATTER 



dicating the presence of a certain quantity of colouring matter in it. The bark is 

 readily detached, and its inner surface, as well as that of the wood, has a peculiar 

 silvery appearance, most apparent on the large pieces, and almost entirely absent 

 in the smaller. Boiled with water, it gives a wine-yellow decoc:tion, and with 

 alcohol a deep red tincture. 



Monndine. 



For the preparation of the colouring matter of sooranjee, to which I give the 

 name of Morindine, I at first attempted the use of boiling -water, in Avhich my 

 preliminary experiments had shewn it to be pretty soluble ; I found, however, 

 that this method was inapplicable, as the decoction contains a quantity of muci- 

 laginous matter which hinders the filtration of the fluid. The use of alkalies, in 

 which the colouring matter is rapidly dissolved, likewise proved abortive, and I 

 had finally recourse to alcohol, which succeeded perfectly. The bark of the root, 

 separated from the woody portions and ground to fine powder, was boiled with 

 six times its weight of rectified spirit, and the tincture filtered boiling hot. Its 

 colour was deep brownish-red, and, on cooling, it let fall the greater quantity of 

 the colouring matter as a brown flocculent precipitate, containing the morindine, 

 contaminated by another red colouring matter which exists in the root in small 

 quantity only. A second decoction, with an equal quantity of spirit, gave a paler 

 solution, from which morindine was deposited with a much smaller quantity of 

 the red colouring matter. This treatment was repeated over and over again, as 

 long as the tinctm'e deposited anything on cooling, and every successive lioiling 

 produced it purer than the preceding, until at length, from the final decoctions, 

 it made its appearance in the form of minute radiated crystals of a yellovi- colour. 

 B}"^ successive crystallizations from alcohol of 50 per cent , the red matter with 

 which it was mixed was entirely removed, and the morindine obtained of a fine 

 yellow colour. It was still, however, impure, and contained a quantity of ash, 

 amounting, in one experiment, to 47, in another to 0"32 per cent. Tlie separa- 

 tion of this could not be effected by crystallizations from alcohol alone ; but after 

 some trouble I succeeded in removing it completely by solution in alcohol slightly 

 acidulated by hydrochloric acid, from which it crystallized in a state of purity. 



Morindine is deposited from alcohol in minute needles, Mhich, if the solution 

 lie dilute, make their appearance in radiated circles attached to the glass, and re- 

 sembling, in their arrangement, the crystals of wavelllte. They are extremely 

 soft, and, on being detached, collected on a filter, and dried, mat together into a 

 a mass, presenting a rich sulphur-yellow colour, and satiny lustre. These crystals 

 are sparingly soluble in cold alcohol, much more so in boiling spirit, especially if 

 dilute ; and the fluid on cooling is filled with a mass of bulky needles, which, when 

 dried, shrink into a very s)nall bulk. They are much less soluble in absolute al- 



