356 SCIENTIFIC AND APPLIED PHARMACOGNOSY 



volatile aromatic principle; a tannin giving a green color with solu- 

 tions of ferric salts; and calcium oxalate. 



It has been shown that young coca leaves contain 2.02 per cent of 

 total alkaloids, or more than twice as much as the older leaves, while 



FIG. 157. Crystals of cocaine chloro-platinate. To \ c.c. of a 1 per cent solu- 

 tion of cocaine are added 2 drops of platinum chloride test solution. The 

 test-tube should not be shaken, as larger and better formed crystals will 

 result when the solution is undisturbed. A buff-colored precipitate is formed 

 which, under the microscope, appears as large feathers or plumes, sometimes 

 arranged in stellate pattern. In higher dilutions (1:600) crystals slowly 

 form which "resemble carpet tacks." 



Alpha-eucaine, with the above test, forms bundles of fine needles; beta- 

 eucaine, after thirty minutes, gives a few large, leaf-like forms, rosettes and 

 cubes; holocaine gives small stars; acoine gives an amorphous precipitate, 

 while stovaine and euphthalmine give no precipitates. None of the pre- 

 cipitates yielded by the cocaine substitutes resemble the cocaine chloroplatin- 

 ate in any way. After Seiter and Enger, Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1911, p. 195. 



the amount of ash yielded by them is slightly less, being 6.4 per cent. 

 The constituents of Ceylon Coca resemble those of the Java variety. 

 Cocaine (the methyl ester of benzoyl-ecgonin). At 25 C. one 

 part of cocaine is soluble in 600 parts of water; 5 parts of alcohol; 

 3.8 parts of ether; and one part of chloroform or benzol. It is 



