NUX VOMICA 521 



Mayer's reagent produces an immediate yellow precipitate. 



Ammonium molybdate produces a blue-colored solution which 

 becomes more marked in a few minutes and the color may last for a 

 number of hours. 



Picric acid produces a slight yellowish precipitate. 



lodin and potassium iodide solution gives an orange-brown 

 colored precipitate. 



Constituents. Two alkaloids of great toxicity, the one known as 

 GELSEMINE, crystallizes in silky needles and on the addition of 

 concentrated nitric acid and heating the solution is colored reddish 

 and then dark green; the other GELSEMININE, occurring in amor- 

 phous masses and forming yellowish 'amorphous salts, is colored 

 greenish on the addition of nitric acid. In addition the drug contains 

 traces of emodin monomethyl ether, together with scopoletin (a 

 monomethyl ether of sesculetin). A subsequent investigation on the 

 constitution of scopoletin has definitely established the fact that it is 

 4-hy droxy-5-methoxy-coumarin . 



A method having been described in the literature for the detection 

 of sesculin by microsublimation, which was regarded as being specially 

 adapted for the identification of gelsemium, the opportunity was 

 taken of correcting several errors of statement connected therewith. 

 It has been noted by Power that gelsemium contains no sesculin, and, 

 furthermore, that this glucoside cannot be sublimed, owing to its 

 decomposition on heating. The crystalline sublimate obtained 

 from gelsemium under the specified conditions consists of scopoletin. 



Gelsemium also contains about 0.5 per cent of a volatile oil: 

 about 4 per cent of resins; pentatriacontane; a phytosterol; a 

 phytosterolin; several fatty acids; starch; and calcium oxalate. 



Literature. Thompson, Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1899, p. 422; 

 Holm, Merck's Report, 1908, p. 86; Power, Jour. Chem. Soc., 1910, 

 p. 2223; Ibid., 1911, p. 2131; Stevenson and Sayre, Jour. A. Ph. A., 

 1915, 4, p. 1458. 



Nux Vomica. The dried, ripe seeds of Strychnos Nux vomica 

 (Fam. Loganiaceae), a small tree native of the East Indies and also 

 found growing in the forests of Ceylon, on the Malabar Coast and in 

 northern Australia. The fruit is a kind of berry with from three to 

 five seeds, which are freed from the bitter pulp by washing, and dried 

 before exportation. The seeds are also known as Quaker Buttons. 



Description. Orbicular, compressed, concavo-convex, sometimes 

 irregularly bent, margin acute or rounded, 17 to 30 mm. in diameter, 

 3 to 5 mm. in thickness; externally grayish-yellow or grayish-green, 

 covered with long hairs giving the seed a eatiny luster, sometimes 



