092 LILIACE^. 



Chemical Composition — The most abundant among the consti- 

 tuents of squill are mucilaginous and saccharine matters. Mucilage may 

 be precipitated by means of neutral and basic acetate of lead, yet there 

 remains in solution another substance of the same class, called Sinistrin. 

 It was discovered in 1879 by Schmiedeberg, who obtained it by mixing 

 the powder of squill, either red or white, with a solution of basic acetate 

 of lead in slight excess. The gummj^ matters thus forming insoluble 

 lead compounds being removed, the liquid is deprived of the lead and 

 mixed with slaked lime. An insoluble compound of sinistrin and cal- 

 cium separates and yields the former on decomposing the well washed 

 precipitate with carbonic acid. The small amount of calcium remaining 

 in the filtrate is to be removed by adding cautiously to the warm solu- 

 tion the small quantity just required of oxalic acid. Lastly, sinistrin is 

 thrown down by alcohol. It is a white amorphous powder, on exposure 

 to air soon forming transparent brittle lumps. The composition of sinis- 

 trin is that of dextrin = C^H'^O^, both these substances being very closely 

 allied, yet the aqueous solution of sinistrin deviates the plane of polariza- 

 tion to the left. The rotatory power appears not to be much influenced 

 by the concentration or the temperature of the solution of sinistrin. 



Analkaline solution of tartrate of copper is not acted upon by sinistrin. 

 It is transformed into sugar by boiling it for half an hour with water 

 containing 1 per cent, of sulphuric acid. The sugar thus produced is stated 

 by Schmiedeberg to consist of l?evulose^ and another sugar, which in all 

 probability, when perfectly pure, must prove devoid of rotatory power. 



The name sinistrin " has also been applied to a mucilaginous matter 

 extracted from barley (see Hordeum decorticatum) ; it remains to be 

 proved that the latter is identical with the sinistrin of squill. 



We have obtained a considerable amount of an uncrystallizable 

 levogyre sugar by exhausting squill with dilute alcohol." Alcohol added 

 to an aqueous infusion of squill causes the separation of the mucilage, 

 together with albuminoid matter. If the alcohol is evaporated and a 

 solution of tannic acid is added, the latter will combine with the bitter 

 principle of squill, which has not yet been isolated, although several 

 chemists have devoted to it their investigations, and applied to it the 

 names of Scillitin or Skulem. SchrofF, to whom we are indebted for a 

 valuable monograph on Squill,* infers from his physiological experiments 

 the presence of a non-volatile acrid principle {Skidein ?), together with 

 scillitin, which latter he supposes to be a glucoside. 



Merck of Darmstadt has isolated Scillipicrin, soluble in water; 

 Scillitoxin, likewise a bitter principle, insoluble in water, but readily 

 dissolving in alcohol ; and Scillin, a crystalline substance, abundantly 

 soluble in boiling ether. The physiological action of these substances and 

 of Scillain has been examined (1878) by Moeller, and by Jarmersted 

 (1879) ; that of scillitoxin and scillain was found to be analogous to 

 that of Digitalis. 



1 This is the name applied to the Isevo- manufacture alcohol by fermenting and 

 gyrate uncrystallizable glucose produced, distilling squill bulbs. — Heldreich, Nutz- 

 together with crystallizable dextro-glucose, pjlanzen Oriechenlands, 1862. 7. 



by decomposing cane sugar by means of ■* Reprinted from the Zeitschrift der Ge- 



dilute acids. sellschaft der Aerzte zu Wien, No. 42 (1864). 



2 In 1834 first proposed, by Marquart, Abstracted also in Canstatt's Jahresberic/d 

 for inulin. 1864. 19, and 1865. 2.38. 



^ In Greece they have even attempted to 



