M. Uloth on EFricinone. 51 
stance formerly regarded as anhydrous mannite. The resolution 
of chinovic acid might therefore be thus expressed :— 
C© H8 O16 + 2HO— C48 H88 08+ Cl? H2O1, 
Chinovine. Chinovic acid. Mannitane. 
Athamantine, a crystalline substance found by Winckler in the 
seeds of Athamanta oreoselinum, is decomposed by hydrochloric 
acid into valerianic acid and oreoselone. Winckler and Schne- 
dermann assigned to it the formula C™ H!5 07: 
C4#HO7 = Cll HO + CM HEO3, 
Athamantine. Valerianic acid. Oreoselone. 
Gerhardt doubled its formula, and therewith the formula of 
oreoselone. Geyger has recently made some analyses which lead 
to the same formula; and the analysis of the nitro-compound, 
C* H*? (NO*)3 04, an amorphous substance prepared by adding 
athamantine to cold fuming nitric acid, confirmed Gerhardt’s 
view. By the action of chlorine on athamantine, a yellow resi- 
nous substance is formed, which has the formula C48 H® C104, 
Tn an investigation of Kino, Eissfeldt was led to the conclusion 
that all plants whose aqueous extracts give a green colour with 
solutions of ferrous salts, yield pyrocatechine when submitted to 
dry distillation, and that all plants which give a blue or bluish- 
black precipitate with ferrous salts yield pyrogallic acid by that 
treatment. Eissfeldt also established the formula of pyrocatechine, 
which differs from that of pyrogallie acid by containing less 
oxygen :— 
C12 Hé 04 Clz Hé O86, 
Pyrocatechine. Pyrogallic acid. 
Uloth* has investigated the plant of the bilberry, and several 
allied plants which are distinguished by containing a large quan- 
tity of a substance which turns iron solutions green, and has con- 
firmed the truth of Hissfeldt’s generalization. All the plants which 
Uloth examined belong to the natural order of the Ericinex, and 
were all found to contain, besides pyrocatechine, a crystallizable 
indifferent substance which he calls Ericinone. It was obtained 
as follows :—After the pyrocatechine had been precipitated from 
the aqueous extract of the plant by sugar of lead, the filtrate was 
saturated with sulphuretted hydrogen, the sulphide of lead filtered 
off, and the filtrate evaporated to dryness. On subjecting the 
mass to dry distillation, the ericinone sublimed over and con- 
densed to white silky needles, which under the microscope are 
seen to consist of quadratic prisms. 
It is a neutral substance, but its aqueous solution gradually 
decomposes, assuming an acid reaction. Even the crystals decom- 
* Liebig’s Annalen, August 1859. 
E 2 
