ALKALOIDS AND SALTS 561 



larger prisms, is dextro-rotatory, and its salts are more 

 soluble and of nearly the same activity. 



ClNCHONlNE (C 20 H 24 N 2 O) is present in the bark of various 

 species of Cinchona and Remijia. It is obtained from the 

 mother-liquors, after crystallisation of sulphate of quinine. 

 Like quinine, it is used in the form of sulphate, which occurs 

 in hard, colourless prisms, having a feebly bitter taste. It 

 is anhydrous, dextro-rotatory ; soluble in alcohol, and in 

 thirty parts of water ; its acidulated watery solution ex- 

 hibits no fluorescence. It is the least active of the cinchona 

 alkaloids, requiring to be given in double the dose of quinine. 



CINCHONIDINE, an alkaloid isomeric with cinchonine, is 

 obtained from the mother-liquors of the crystallisation of 

 sulphate of quinine. Like the other alkaloids, it is used as 

 a sulphate, and is considerably more active than cinchonine. 



Quinine and cinchonine, when heated with excess of a 

 mineral acid, are converted into amorphous isomeric alka- 

 loids, termed respectively quinicine and cinchonicine. 



QUININE SULPHATE [(C 20 H 24 N 2 2 ) 2 ,H 2 SO 4 ] 2 , 15H 2 0, con- 

 tains 74J per cent, of the alkaloid. In filiform silky white 

 crystals of an intensely bitter taste. Soluble in about 

 800 parts water, entirely soluble in water acidulated with 

 a mineral acid, and in alcohol. 



QUININE HYDROCHLORIDE (C 20 H 24 N 2 2 ,HC1,2H 2 0) contains 

 83 per cent, of the alkaloid. In crystals resembling those of 

 the sulphate but somewhat larger. Soluble in thirty-five 

 parts cold water, and in three parts cold alcohol (90 per 

 cent.), and very soluble in boiling water. 



ACID QUININE HYDROCHLORIDE, is a white crystalline 

 powder, soluble in less than its own weight of water, yielding 

 a somewhat acid liquid (B.P.). 



ACTIONS AND USES. Cinchona bark is astringent from 

 the presence of tannin, and antiseptic, tonic, and antipyretic 

 owing to its alkaloids. These alkaloids have in concentrated 

 form the several actions of the crude drug, but not its 

 astringency. They differ only in the degree of their action. 

 Quinine is the most powerful and most generally used. 

 Small doses very briefly stimulate, large doses at once 

 depress the functions of the organs with which they are 

 brought into contact. 



2N 



