IGNATIA 527 



from alcoholic solutions it contains but two molecules. 1 A number of 

 salts are used in medicine and the sulphate alone was examined. 

 The crystals of brucine sulphate vary in length from 1 to 2.5 mm. 

 (Fig. 224). 



Ignatia. The seeds of Strychnos Ignatii (Fam. Loganiacese), a 

 woody climber of the Philippine Islands, contain about the same 

 amount of total alkaloids as nux vomica, of which one-third to two- 

 thirds is strychnine. The seeds are irregular, somewhat oblong or 

 ovoid, pebble-like, 20 to 30 mm. in length; grayish- or brownish- 

 black, more or less translucent, and are nearly free from lignified 

 hairs, such as are found in nux vomica. 



FIG. 224. Brucine sulphate: orthorhombic crystals from aqueous solution. 



Literature. Tschirch, Arch. d. Pharm., 1890, p. 203; Meyer, 

 Wissenchaftliche Drogenkunde; Kraemer, Proc. Am. Phil. Soc., 

 1902, p. 174; Hill, Kew Bull., 1917, p. 121. 



SPIGELIA. Pinkroot. The rhizome and roots of Spigelia mari- 

 landica (Fam. Loganiacese), a perennial herb indigenous to the 

 southern United States. Spigelia should be collected in autumn, 

 carefully dried and preserved, and not kept longer than two years. 



Description. Rhizome horizontal or slightly oblique, more or 

 less branched, 1.5 to 3 cm. in length, 2 to 3 mm. in diameter; exter- 

 nally dark brown, slightly annulate from scars of bud-scales, the 

 1 A. Oesterle, Grundriss der Pharmakochemie. 



