358 RUBIACEiE. 



peculiar principles of Cinchona bark are the Alkaloids, — enumerated in 

 the following table : — ^ 



Cinchonine C^H^N'O. 



or, as proposed by Skraup (1878) C'H^^N'O 



Cinchonidine (Quinidine of many writers) . same formula. 



Quinine C^oH^^N^Ol 



Quinidine {Goiiquvnine of Hesse) . . . same formula. 



Quinamine Ci^H^^N^O-. 



Conquinamine (Conchinamine) . . . same formula. 



B, A. Gomes ^ of Lisbon (1810) first succeeded in obtaining active 

 principles of cinchona, by treating an alcoholic extract of the bark with 

 water, adding to the solution caustic potash, and crystallizing the precip- 

 itate from alcohol. The basic properties of the substance thus obtained, 

 which Gomes called Cinclwnino, were observed in the laboratory of 

 Thenard by Houtou-Labillardiere, and communicated to Pelletier and 

 Caventou.'' Shortly before that time, Sertiiruer had asserted the 

 existence of organic alkalis : and the French chemists, guided by that 

 brilliant discovery, were enabled to show that the Cinclionino of Gomes 

 belonged to the same class of substances. Pelletier and Caventou, 

 however, speedily pointed out that it consisted of two distinct alkaloids, 

 one of which they named Quinine, the other Cinchonine. In 1827 the 

 Institut de France awarded to the two chemists for their discovery the 

 Montyon prize of 10,000 francs (see page 57, note 4). 



Cinchonidine (thus called by Pasteur in 1853) was first obtained 

 and characterized under the name of Quinidine in 1847, by F. L. 

 Winckler of Darmstadt, from Maracaibo Bark (C. tucujensis Karst.) ; 

 and in 1852 it was more closely studied by Leers, still under the name 

 of quinidine. 



Cinchovatine, formerly stated to be a peculiar alkaloid, has been 

 shown by Hesse in 1876 to agree with cinchonidine. 



Quinidine is the name applied by Henry and Delondre to an alkaloid 

 they obtained in 1833 ; its peculiar nature was not clearly proved until 

 1853, when Pasteur examined it, and 1857 when De Vry showed its 

 identity with the Beta-quinine extracted in 1849 by Van Heijningnen 

 from commercial quinoidin. The name quinidine having been since 

 applied to different basic substances more or less pure, Hesse (1865) 

 has proposed to replace it by that of Conquinine (Conchinin in Ger- 

 man). The alkaloid is especially characteristic of the Pitayo barks, and 

 also occurs in the Calisaya barks from Java. 



Quinamine was discovered in 1872 by Hesse, in bark of C. suc- 

 cvruhra cultivated at Darjiling in British Sikkim ; it is also of common 

 occurrence in the barks collected in Java. Conquinamine was ex- 

 tracted in 1873 by Hesse from old barks from British India. 



Paricine is another basic substance discovered in 1845 by Winckler, 

 in the bark of Buena hexandra Pohl. Hesse detected it along with 



^ Hesse, in 1877, pointed out the ex- ^ Ensaio sobre o Cinchonino, e sobre sua 



istence of a series of new alkaloids existing influencia na virtude da quina e d'outras 



in Cinchona. We refrain from repeating cascas.— Jifem. da Acad. R. das Sciencias 



his statements, which will be found ah- de Lisboa, iii. (1812) 202-217. 



stracted in the Yearbook of Pharm. * Ann. de C'him. et de Phys. xv. (1820) 



1878. 63. 292. 



