536 SCIENTIFIC AND APPLIED PHARMACOGNOSY 



offered consisting of the exhausted drug to which aloes had been 

 added. Ground olive endocarp has also been found in the powder. 



A qualitative test having some quantitative value in deter- 

 mining the strength of powdered gentian is as follows: 0.500 gramme 

 of the finely powdered drug is shaken with 500 c.c. of water for a few 

 hours. Ten c.c. of the filtered solution are diluted with 10 c.c. of 

 water. A few cubic centimeters of this solution should give the 

 characteristic taste of gentian. 



Constituents. A bitter glucoside gentiopicrin, about 0.1 per cent, 

 occurring in yellow needles which are readily soluble in water but less 

 so in alcohol and to which the drug owes its peculiar bitterness and 

 odor; a coloring principle gentisin (gentianin or gentisic acid), occur- 

 ring in yellowish prisms which are soluble in alcohol but nearly 

 insoluble in water, and becoming greenish-brown with solutions of 

 ferric salts, whence some consider it to be a kind of tannin and have 

 named it gentiotannic acid; quercitrin, or an allied product, crys- 

 tallizing in yellowish needles; gentianose, a crystalline carbohydrate 

 which occurs in the fresh root and which does not reduce Fehling's 

 solution; 12 to 15 per cent of glucose; and pectin. Gentian also 

 contains two other glucosides : gentiamarin, which is amorphous, has 

 a disagreeable bitter taste and gives a slight darkening with iron 

 salts; and gentianin, which occurs in yellowish needles, gives a 

 greenish-black color with solutions of ferric salts and on hydrolysis 

 yields gentienin, xylose and glucose. 



Allied Plants. The rhizomes and roots of various other European 

 species of Gentiana are sometimes collected and employed medici- 

 nally, as of Gentiana purpurea, collected in Switzerland, and G. 

 pannonica and G. punctata, collected in Austria. The rhizome and 

 roots of Elliott's gentian, Gentiana Elliottii, indigenous to the 

 southeastern part of the United States, was at one time official in 

 this country. 



The root of American Columbo, also known as yellow gentian 

 (Frasera carolinensis), a perennial herb growing in the eastern United 

 States and Canada, resembles in the whole condition the true gen- 

 tian, but is of a lighter color (see Calumba). 



Chirata. The entire plant of Sweertia Chirata (Fam. Gen- 

 tianaceae), an annual herb indigenous to the mountains of northern 

 India. The plants are collected after the capsules are fully formed, 

 dried and made into bundles. 



Description. Usually in flat bundles tied with strips of bamboo 

 and about 1 M. in length, 15 cm. wide and 7 cm. in thickness. Root 

 simple, tapering, about_7 mm. in thickness near the crown ; externally 



