CORTEX QUILLAJyE. SOAP BARK. 169 



Chemistry. — The principal anthelmintic constituent 

 of the drug is the poisonous pelletierin, CgH^gNO, an 

 alkaloid, yet the 20 per cent, of tannic acid contained 

 therein is not without medicinal importance. Besides 

 pelletierin, there are three other poisonous liquid al- 

 kaloids — isopelletierin, pseudo-pelletierin, and me thy 1- 

 pelletierin — found in the bark. The amount of alkaloid 

 seems to vary from o.i to i per cent., and the various 

 barks seem to give up their alkaloids to boiling water with 

 a varying facility. 



CORTEX QUILLAJ^. SOAP BARK. 



The inner bark of Quillaja Saponaria, Molina (nat. ord. 

 RosacecB). 



Description. — Flat, large pieces about 5 mm. thick; 

 outer surface brownish-white, often with small patches 

 of brown cork attached, otherwise smooth; inner surface 

 whitish, smooth; fracture splintery, checkered with pale 

 brownish bast fibres imbedded in white tissue; inodor- 

 ous ; taste persistently acrid ; the dust very sternutatory. 

 The infusion of quillaja foams like soap- water. 



The distinctly checkered arrangement of the tissue 

 which appears on cross-section is due to the zones of 

 sieve-tube groups and parenchyma which alternate with 

 bast bundles and medullary rays. The medullary rays 

 are made up of four rows of cells. The short bast fibres 

 are very much knotted and bent, and contain cavities 

 which enclose crystals of oxalate of lime, of unusual size 

 and structure. In the parenchyma there are, besides the 

 small starch granules, small lumps of a material which is 

 probably saponin. They dissolve in sulphuric acid (sp. 

 gr. 18.4), forming a yellow solution, which changes to red, 

 and then to violet. 



Chemistry. — Shaken with water the saponin in the 

 bark produces a lasting foam. Saponin is a poisonous 

 glycoside, formed of two very poisonous substances, 



