126. FIIYTOSTERIN, ETC. 107 



cone, sulphuric acid with 1 of water, a red colouration is pro- 

 duced, whilst 4 of acid with 1 of water develops a blue, and 

 3 with 1 a violet tinge. If a mixture of concentrated hydro- 

 chloric acid and solution of ferric chloride (3 in 1) is eva- 

 porated with a little cholesterin, a reddish-violet or bluish-violet 

 colour makes its appearance. Similar treatment with sulphuric 

 acid and ferric chloride leaves a carmine residue, which gradually 

 passes to violet and becomes scarlet on treating with ammonia. 1 

 After trituration with sulphuric acid cholesterin is coloured red 

 by the addition of chloroform. 



Phytosterin, a substance allied to and probably homologous with 

 cholesterin, was discovered by Hesse 2 in the Calabar bean. Its 

 solubility is, on the whole, similar to that of cholesterin, with 

 which it has occasionally been confounded. It melts at 133, and 

 is somewhat less powerfully laevo-rotatory ( D = 34*2). 



Filicin is another substance soluble in petroleum spirit ; it is 

 extracted, therefore, together with the fixed oil, and is partially 

 deposited in crystals on evaporating such a solution ; an appre- 

 ciable quantity, however, remains dissolved in the fixed oil. 

 Experiments made at my instance by Kruse, 3 with the object of 

 devising a quantitative separation of filicin from fixed oil, were 

 unsuccessful ; all the liquids employed (acetone, acetic ether, 

 ether, heavy petroleum oils, bisulphide of carbon, etc.) dissolved 

 both substances. Attempts to separate the fixed oil from the 

 filicin by dissolving in a hot aqueous solution of carbonate of 

 soda and fractionally precipitating with hydrochloric acid, as well 

 as the same treatment of an alkaline alcoholic solution, were 

 attended with negative results. 



The kosin* contained in cousso is soluble in petroleum spirit, 

 especially when warm. It is more easily soluble in ether, benzene, 

 or bisulphide of carbon, somewhat sparingly in alcohol and glacial 

 acetic acid. Ferric chloride colours the alcoholic solution red, and 



1 Zeitschr. f. anal. Chemie, xvii. 173, 1878, and Ritthausen, ' Eiweiss- 

 korper,' 98. 



2 Annal. d. Chem. und Pharm. cxcii. 175, 1878 (Journ. Chem. Soc. xxxiv. 

 850). For paracholesterin, see ibid, ccvii. 229, 1881. Hesse, ibid. ccxi. 283 ; 

 Schulze and Barbieri, Ber. d. d. Chem. Ges. xv, 953, 1882. 



8 Archiv d. Pharm. [3], ix. 24, 1876 (Journ. Chem. Soc. xxxi. 336). See 

 also Luck, Annal. d. Chem. und Pharm. liv. 191, 1851, and Grabowski, Chem. 

 Centralbl. 409, 1867. 



4 Fltickiger and Buri, Archiv d. Pharm. [3], v. 193, 1874 (Pharm. Journ. 

 and Trans. [3], v. 562). 



