CORTEX CINCHONA 359 



quinamine in the bark of C. stLCcirvhi'a ; its composition is not yet 

 known. 



Ancine, CP'H*N'0^ and Cuscmiine, C^H*N-q'+2 OH^ occur in 

 the so-called false Cinchona barks of not ascertained botanic origin. 

 These alkaloids differ in many respects from those of true Cinchona 

 barks.^ 



Pitoyine was pointed out by Peretti (1837), but Hesse has shown 

 (1873) that the bark called China bicolorata Tecamez^ or Pitoya Bark 

 from which it was obtained, is altogether destitute of alkaloid. 



Lastly may he mentioned Paytitie, C'-^H^^N-O + OH^, a crystalliz- 

 able alkaloid discovered in 1870 by Hesse in a white bark of uncertain 

 origin.^ It is allied to quinamine and quinidine, but has not been met 

 with in any known cinchona bark. 



By heating for a length of time solutions of the cinchona alkaloids 

 with an excess of some mineral acid, Pasteur (1753) obtained amorphous 

 modifications of the natural bases. Quinine thus afforded Quinicine, 

 having the same composition ; cinchonine and cinchonidine furnished 

 Civchonichie, likewise agreeing in composition with the alkaloids from 

 which it originates. These amorphous products may also be obtained 

 by heating the natural bases in glycerin at 200° C, when a red sub- 

 stance is also formed. In quinine manufactories, amorphous alkaloids 

 are constantly met with, being partly produced in the course of the 

 manipulations to which the materials are subjected. Yet cinchona 

 barks also afford amorphous alkaloids at the very outset of analysis, 

 whence we must infer their existence in the living plant. 



The name QvAnoidine (or rather " Chinio'idin") was applied by 

 Sertiirner (1829) to an uncrystallizable basic substance, which he pre- 

 pared from cinchona barks, and found to be a peculiar alkaloid. The 

 term has subsequently been bestowed upon a preparation which has 

 found its way into commerce and medical practice, in the form of a dark 

 brown brittle extractiform mass, softening below 100° C, and having 

 usually a slight alkaline reaction. It is obtained in quinine factories 

 by precipitating the brown mother-liquors with ammonia, and contains 

 the amorphous alkaloids naturally occurring in the barks. Quinoidin 

 should not be used unless, when previously dried at 100°, it proves to 

 afford at least 70 per cent, of alkaloids soluble in ether. 



Quinine and the allied alkaloids have not been met with in any 

 appreciable amount in other parts of the cinchonas than the bark, nor 

 has their presence been ascertained in other plants than those of the 

 tribe Cinchonece. 



Characters of the Cinchona Alkaloids. 



1. Quinine. — It is obtained from alcoholic solutions, in prisms of the 

 composition C^oH^^NsQ^-l- 3 OH^, fusing at oT C. The crystals may be 

 deprived of water by warming or exposure over oil of vitriol, and they 



^ Yearbook of Pharm. 1878. 59. as in its structure, this bark is widely dif- 



^ So called from Tecamez or Tacames, a ferent from any Cinchona bark. — See also 



small port of Ecuador in about lat. 1° X. Vogl, in the second pamphlet quoted at 



The bark which was first noticed in Lam- page 391. 10 ; Oberlin and Schlagden- 



bert^s Description of the Genus Cinchona, hauffen, Joum. de Pharm. 28. (1878) 252. 



1797. 30. tab. ii., is of unknown botanical ^ Fliickiger in Wiggers and Husemann, 



origin. In its external appeai-ance, as well JaAresbericht for 1872. 132. 



