382 COMPOSITiE. 



The latter can be removed from the crystals by pressing them between 

 folds of bibulous paper. On submitting this again to distillation, 

 alantol is obtained as an aromatic liquid, boiling at 200°. 



The substance most abundantly contained in elecampane root is 

 Inidin, discovered in it by Valentine Rose at Berlin in 1804. It has the 

 same composition as starch, C^H^''0^, but stands to a certain extent in 

 opposition to that substance, which it replaces in the root-system of 

 Covipositce. In living plants, inulin is dissolved in the watery juice, and 

 on drying is deposited within the cells in amorphous masses, wliich in 

 polarized light are inactive, and are not coloured by iodine. There are 

 various other characters, by which inulin differs from starch. Thus for 

 instance, inulin readily dissolves in about 3 parts of boiling water ; the 

 solution is perfectly clear and fluid, not paste-like; but on cooling 

 deposits nearly all the inulin. The solution is levogyre and is easily 

 transformed into uncrystallizable sugar. With nitric acid, inulin affords 

 no explosive compound as starch does. 



Sachs showed in 1864 that by immersing the roots of elecampane, or 

 Dahlia variabilis or of many other perennial Compositce, in alcohol 

 or glycerin, inulin may be precipitated in a crystalline form. Its 

 globular aggregates of needle-shaped crystals (" sphsero-crystals") then 

 exhibit under the polarizing microscope a cross similar to that displayed 

 by starch grains. 



The amount of inulin varies according to the season, but is most 

 abundant in the autumn. Of the various sources for it, the richest 

 appears to be elecampane. Dragendorff, who has made it the subject of 

 a very exhaustive treatise,^ obtained from the root in October not less 

 than 44 per cent., but in spring only 19 per cent. 



In the roots of the Comj)ositce inulin is accompanied, according to 

 Popp,^ by two closely allied substances, Synanthrose, C^"H^"0"+H^O, 

 and Inulo'id, C®H"0'+H^O. Synanthrose is soluble in dilute alcohol, 

 devoid of any rotatoiy power, and deliquescent. Inuloid is much more 

 readily soluble in water than inulin. Both these substances are probably 

 present in elecampane. 



Inulin is widely distributed in the perennial roots of composites, and 

 has also been met with in the natural orders Campanulaceae, Goodenovieai 

 (or Goodeniace?e), Lobeliacese, Stylidiese, and lastly by Kraus (1879) in 

 the root of lonidium Ipecacuanha St. Hilaire, Violaceie ; the formerly 

 so-called Ipecacuanha alba lignosa (see p. 375, note 4). 



Uses — Elecampane is an aromatic tonic, but as a medicine is now 

 obsolete. It is chiefly sold for veterinary practice. In France and 

 Switzerland (Neuchatel), it is employed in the distillation oi Absinthe. 



' Substitutes — Dioscorides in speaking of Costus root states that it is 

 often mixed with . that of elecampane of Kommagene (north-western 

 Syria). The former, derived from Aplotaxis^ auriculata DC. {A. Laj^j^a 

 Decaisne, Aucklandia Costus Falconer), is remarkably similar to elecam- 

 pane both in external appearance and structure. Costus is an important 

 spice, incense and medicine in the east from the antiquity down to 



^ Materialkn zu einer Monographie des ^ Wiggers and Husemann, Jahreshericht 



Inulins, St. Petersburg, 1870. 141 pages— for 1870. 68. 



See also PrantVs paper on Inulin, as ab- * Bentham and Hooker unite this plant 



stracted in Pharm. Journ. Sept. 1871. 262. with SausAurea. 



