CHOLEIC ACID. 425 



separated as an oily mass which becomes crystalline on cooling. The 

 alkali salts are not readily soluble in alcohol, and on the evaporation of 

 the alcohol they may crystallize. The specific rotatory power of the 

 sodium salt 1 is (a) D = +30.61 (2.29 per cent concentration) to +27.46 

 (7.59 per cent concentration). The watery solution of the alkali salts, 

 when not too dilute, is precipitated immediately or after some time by 

 lead acetate or by barium chloride. The barium salt crystallizes in fine, 

 silky needles, and is rather insoluble in cold, but somewhat easily soluble 

 in warm water. The barium salt, as well as the lead salt, which is 

 insoluble in water, is soluble in warm alcohol. 



Choleic Acid (C25H 4 204, LATSCHINOFF) is another cholic acid which, 

 according to LASSAR-CoHN, 2 has the formula, C24H4o04. This acid, 

 which occurs in varying but always small quantities in ox-bile, and also 

 in gall-stones (H. FISCHER and P. MEYER 3 ) yields dehydrocholeic add, 

 C24Hs404, and then cholanic acid, C24Hs4O7, and isocholanic add on 

 oxidation. 



Choleic acid crystallizes when free from water in hexagonal vitreous 

 prisms with pointed ends, melting at 185-187 C. The crystalline acid 

 containing water melts at 135-140 C. (LATSCHINOFF). The acid 

 dissolves in water with difficulty and is also relatively difficultly soluble 

 in alcohol. It has an intensely bitter taste and gives the MYLIUS iodine 

 reaction for cholic acid, and also the color reaction of cholic acid with 

 hydrochloric acid. The specific rotation is (a) D = +48.87 (VAHLEN). 

 The barium salt which crystallizes from the hot alcoholic solution as 

 spherical aggregations of radial needles is more difficultly soluble in 

 water than the corresponding cholate. 



Desoxycholic Acid, C24H4oO4, is the name given by MYLIUS 4 to a 

 cholic acid isolated by him from putrid ox-bile, also in gall-stones (Ktis- 

 TER) and in faeces (FISCHER 5 ), and which is formed from the cholic acid 

 (on the putrefaction of the bile) by reduction. This last is still very 

 improbable, and the investigations of EKBOM do not support such an 

 assumption. On using perfectly pure cholic acid he was able to regain 

 it almost quantitatively after the action of metallic sodium on the alcoholic 

 solution of the acid, or of zinc and alkali. By treatment with zinc 

 and glacial acetic acid a reaction took place, but the product was a 

 mixture of mono- and diacetyl derivatives. The observation of PREGL 



1 See Vahlen, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 21. 



2 Latschinoff, Ber. d. deutsch. chem. Gesellsch., 18 and 20; Lassar-Cohn, ibid., 26, 

 and Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 17. See also Vahlen, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 23. 



3 Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 76. 



4 Ber d. d. chem. Gesellsch, 19 and 20. 



6 Kiister, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 69; H. Fischer, ibid., 73. 



