1 66 RANUNCULACE^E 



are the principal constituents. Berberine, C 2 oHi7N04, is very 

 widely distributed in nature, being found in drugs from several 

 different families of plants. Hydrastine, when pure, is hi perfectly 

 colorless, very brilliant, glassy crystals. As a rule, however, they are 

 white and opaque, owing to the presence of numerous fractures. The 

 yellow color of berberine adheres very tenaciously to the hydrastine, so 

 that the absolutely colorless hydrastine is difficult to obtain. Cana- 

 dine, C2oH 2 iN04, tetrahydroberberine, the sulphate of which is sol- 

 uble in water and alcohol. The resinoid, hydrastin, should not 

 be confounded with the active alkaloid. This resinoid is made by 

 precipitating a concentrated alcoholic tincture of hydrastis with acidu- 



FIG. 73. Hydrastis Rhizome, cross-section. (18 diam.) A, Cortex. 

 C, Medulla. (Photomicrograph.) 



B, Vascular bundle. 



lated water, and is probably, in the main, an impure muriate of ber- 

 berine. Hydrastinine, which Falk regards as a valuable remedy, is 

 made by decomposing the alkaloid, hydrastine, with dilute nitric 

 acid and gentle heat, when opianic acid is also formed. 



Preparation of Hydrastine. Percolate drug with water; precipitate berberine 

 by adding HC1; to nitrate add ammonia in excess. The impure hydrastine which 

 then;deposits is dissolved in alcohol, filtered through charcoal, and crystallized. 



Preparation of Berberine. (Obtained also from Berberis yulgaris and allied 

 drugs.) Exhaust powdered root with boiling water, evaporating to soft extract; 

 exhaust this with alcohol; add water. Distil off alcohol; add EUSO* in excess, 

 when berberine sulphate crystallizes in yellow needles. 



ACTION AND USES. Until the introduction of the white alkaloid hydras- 

 tine, the drug was used almost exclusively as a local astringent; but 

 of late years, since the many physiological experiments with this alka- 

 loid, it has been used internally in chronic inflammations of the 



