410 THE LIVER. 



HUGOUNENQ and DOYON 1 prepared biliverdin from bilirubin by the 

 action of sodium peroxide and a little hydrochloric acid. 



Choleprasin is a green pigment isolated by KUSTER 2 from gall-stones, which is 

 soluble in glacial acetic acid but insoluble in alcohol. It differs from the other 

 bile-pigments by containing sulphur. On distillation with zinc powder it gives 

 the pyrrol reaction, and on oxidation with chromic acid, KUSTER could not observe 

 any formation of haematinic acid. 



Bilifuscin, so named by STADELER, 3 is an amorphous brown pigment soluble 

 in alcohol and alkalies, nearly insoluble in water and ether, and soluble with great 

 difficulty in chloroform (when bilirubin is not present at the same time). Pure 

 bilifuscin does not give GMELIN'S reaction. This is also true for the bilifuscin 

 prepared by v. ZUMBUSCH/ which is more like a humin substance, and the formula 

 of which is C 6 4H 96 N 7 Oi 4 . Bilifuscin has been found in gall-stones. Biliprasin is 

 a green pigment prepared by STADELER from gall-stones, and is generally con- 

 sidered as a mixture of biliverdin and bilirubin. DASTRE and FLORESCo, 5 on the 

 contrary, consider biliprasin as an intermediate step between bilirubin and bili- 

 verdin. According to them it occurs as a physiological pigment in the bladder- 

 bile of several animals, and is derived from bilirubin by oxidation. This oxidation 

 is brought about by an oxidative ferment existing in the bile. Bilihumin is the 

 name given by STADELER to that brownish amorphous residue which is left after 

 extracting gall-stones with chloroform, alcohol, and ether. It does not give 

 GMELIN'S test. Bilicyanin is also found in human gall-stones (HEINSIUS and 

 CAMPBELL). Cholohcematin, so called by MACMUNN, is a pigment often occurring 

 in sheep- and ox-bile and characterized by four absorption-bands, which is 

 formed from hsematin by the action of sodium amalgam. In the dried condition, 

 as when obtained by the evaporation of the chloroform solution, it is green, and in 

 alcoholic solution olive-brown. This pigment, which has also been found by 

 HAMMARSTEN in the bile from the musk-ox and hippopotamus, is, according to 

 MARCHLEWSKI, identical with the crystalline bilipurpurin isolated by LOEBISCH 

 and FISCHLER from ox-bile. This latter pigment, according to MARCHLEWSKI, is 

 not a bile-pigment, but phylloerythrin, a transformation product of chlorophyll. 

 Phylloerythrin has been detected by MARCHLEWSKI a in the excrement of cows 

 fed on green grass. 



GMELIN'S and HUPPERT'S reactions are generally used to detect the 

 presence of bile-pigments in animal fluids or tissues. The first, as a rule, 

 can be performed directly, and the presence of proteins does not interfere 

 with it, but, on the contrary, it brings out the play of colors more strik- 

 ingly. If blood-coloring matters are present at the same time, the bile- 

 coloring matters are first precipitated by the addition of sodium phos- 

 phate and milk of lime. This precipitate containing the bile-pigments 

 may be used directly in HUPPERT'S reaction, or a little of the precipitate 

 may be dissolved in HAMMARSTEN'S reagent. Bilirubin is detected in 



1 Hugounenq et Doyon, Arch, de Phyisol. (5), 8; Kiister, Zeitschr. f. physiol. 

 Chem., 59. 



a Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 47. 



3 Cited from Hoppe-Seyler, Physiol. u. Path. chem. Analyse, 6. Aufl., p. 225. 



4 Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 31. 



5 Arch, de Physiol. (5), 9. 



6 MacMunn, Journ. of Physiol., 6; Loebisch and Fischler, Wien. Sitzungsber., 112 

 (1903); Marchlewski, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 41, 43, and 45; Hammarsten, ibid., 

 43, and investigations not published. 



