SANTONIN, ESCULIN. J)09 



marsh-mallow, from which last it is generally prepared. The 

 root is exhausted by means of cold water, the solution concen- 

 trated by evaporation, and left for a long time in a cool place, 

 for the crystallization of the asparagin. It forms pretty large, 

 colourless, octahedral crystals, of a weak taste, soluble in 58 

 parts of cold water, insoluble in absolute alcohol, but more 

 soluble in rectified spirits of wine than in water. These crys- 

 tals lose 12.13 per cent of water at 194. 



Heated with acid or alkaline solutions, asparagin is resolved 

 into ammonia and aspartic acid, conducting itself thus like an 

 amide. Heated with water alone, under pressure, above 212, 

 asparagin is converted into the aspartate of ammonia, by the 

 assumption of 1 atom of water. The formula of anhydrous 

 asparamide is C 8 H 5 NO 5 + NH 2 . 



JJspartic acid, HO + C 8 H 5 NO 6 ; crystallizes in thin plates, 

 slightly soluble in water, and possessed of weak acid powers.* 



SANTONIN. 



A crystallizable substance, obtained by Koehler and by Alms 

 from the seeds of Artemisia santonica, or southernwood. It 

 is colourless and destitute of smell, requires between 4 and 500 

 times its weight of cold, and 250 times its weight of boiling 

 water to dissolve it. It fuses about 276 without loss 

 of weight. The solution of santonin in alcohol reddens 

 litmus, but its acid powers are weak. Its compound with 

 potash, which has been named the santonate of potash, is 

 decomposed when its solution is boiled for a few minutes, and 

 the santonin deposited in crystals when the solution cools. 

 It may be combined with other bases, but not without the 

 agency of alcohol. Its analysis gave C 5 H 3 O, but its atomic 

 weight is supposed to be twelve times as high (Liebig).f 



ESCULIN. 



This substance is derived, by means of hot alcohol, from the 

 chesnut-tree, ash, and probably other barks. It is in thin 

 colourless plates, or a white powder, of a weak bitter taste, not 

 fusible without decomposition. It is sparingly soluble in cold 



* Wittstock in PoggendorfFs Annalen, xx, 346. 

 f- TrotnsdorfF Jun. ; Liebig's Annalen, xi, 190. 



