86 SCIENTIFIC AND APPLIED PHARMACOGNOSY 



the sulphuric acid contains a mere trace of nitric acid the solution 

 of the alkaloid becomes yellowish-green, green, bluish-green, blue, 

 violet, wine-red and finally yellow. The salts of colchicine are quite 

 unstable. The drug also contains the alkaloid colchiceine, which 

 crystallizes in needles and is apparently formed during the extraction 

 of the drug by reason of the decomposition of colchicine. The latter 

 may be formed on the esterification of colchiceine with methyl 

 alcohol. The corm also contains two resins; a large amount of starch ; 

 ash about 2.5 per cent. 



COLCHICI SEMEN. Colchicum Seed. The dried, ripe seeds of 

 Colchicum autumnale (Fam. Liliacese), a perennial bulbous plant, 

 native of and growing in moist meadows in Southern and Middle 

 Europe and Northern Africa. The commercial supplies come chiefly 

 from England and Germany. 



Description. Hemi-anatropous, ovoid or irregularly globular, 

 more or less beaked, with .an easily detachable strophiole, 2 to 3 

 mm. in diameter; externally dark brown, becoming darker with age, 

 minutely pitted, the epidermis detached in irregular patches in older 

 seeds; frequently agglutinated when fresh, due to the presence of a 

 saccharine exudation; very hard when dry, tough when damp, inter- 

 nally whitish, endosperm hard, embryo 0.5 mm. long and situated 

 at end opposite the strophiole; nearly inodorous; taste feeble, bitter 

 and somewhat acrid. 



Constituents. Proteins; fixed oil about 6 per cent; a tannin-like 

 substance in the seed coat; starch grains in the caruncle; an alkaloid 

 colchicine 0.4 to 0.6 per cent (0.55 per cent required by the U.S.P.) ; 

 a resinous principle colchicoresin; ash about 2.5 per cent. 



Inner Structure. Seed-coat consisting of 6 or 8 rows of more or 

 less collapsed cells; endosperm made up of numerous thick-walled 

 porous cells containing oil globules and aleurone grains, the latter 

 being from 0.003 to 0.015 mm. .in diameter; embryo small, the 

 beaked portion, or caruncle, containing numerous, somewhat ovoid, 

 ellipsoidal or polygonal starch grains, from 0.005 to 0.016 mm. in 

 diameter. 



Powder. Light or dark brown; sclerenchymatous cells with 

 pigment soluble in potassium hydrate solution, and reacting with 

 iron salts somewhat like tannin; cells of endosperm thick-walled, 

 with simple pores and few oil globules; parenchymatous cells of 

 strophiole thin-walled, and with numerous nearly spheroidal starch 

 grains 0.007 to 0.015 mm. in diameter. 



ALOE. Aloes. The inspissated juice of the leaves of various 

 species of Aloe (Fam. Liliaceae), perennial succulents (Fig. 33) 



