QUININE AND CINCHON1NE. f>79 



alcohol and ether. It has a weak taste, alkaline reaction, and 

 fuses by the heat of boiling water. 



4. Thebaine or paramorphine, C 25 H 14 NO 3 , is crystallizable, 

 has an alkaline reaction and sharp taste. 



5. Narceine, a weak base which exists in opium in a very 

 small proportion. Two other bases, pseudomorphine and por- 

 phyroxine have been discovered in certain species of opium. 

 Opium also contains a neutral substance meconine in minute 

 quantity, of which the elements are carbon, oxygen and hydrogen 

 only. 



QUININE AND CINCHONINE. 



Peruvian bark owes its febrifuge qualities to these bases, 

 which it contains in combination with tannic and kinic acids. 

 Quinine is most abundant in yellow bark, usually considered 

 as the bark of the Cinchona cardifolia, while cinchonine prevails 

 in the grey bark considered as the bark of the Cinchona nitida 

 or of the Cinchona condaminea. 



The ground bark is boiled in water acidulated with hydro- 

 chloric acid, the filtered solution mixed with an excess of milk 

 of lime, the precipitate washed, expressed and dried. From 

 this precipitate, which contains quinine, cinchonine, tannate of 

 lime and other matters, the two bases are dissolved out by 

 boiling alcohol ; the solution which is strongly coloured is 

 filtered, neutralised with dilute sulphuric acid and the alcohol 

 distilled off. Sulphate of quinine crystallizes on cooling, 

 and is obtained colourless by treatment with animal charcoal 

 and repeated crystallization. The sulphate of cinchonine may 

 be obtained from the coloured mother liquor. Both bases may 

 be isolated by precipitating a solution of their salts in water, 

 by means of ammonia. (Wcehler.) 



Quinine, C 20 H 12 NO 2 . This base is precipitated by ammonia 

 in white flocks, which are not crystalline, and is crystallized 

 even from solution in alcohol with difficulty ; but from hot 

 alcohol containing a little ammonia quinine is deposited in 

 fine needles. It is in the state of a hydrate, which fuses 

 about 302 and loses the whole of its water. Quinine is very 

 bitter, alkaline, soluble in 200 parts of boiling water, and highly 

 soluble in alcohol. Most of the salts of this base are crys- 

 tallizable, intensely bitter and are precipitated by alkalies, 

 bichloride of platinum and oxalic acid. 



2 s s 2 



