RADIX SARSAPARILL^. 711 



are often present, the latter being round and not prickly. Tlie root is 

 dark, large and coarse-looking, with a good deal of fibre. The bark is 

 furrowed, rather thick, and not mealy in the slenderer portions of the 

 root which is near the rootstock ; but as the root becomes stout, so its 

 bark becomes smoother, thicker and amylaceous, exhibiting when cut a 

 fawn-coloured or pale yellow interior. 



The quantity exported from Guayaquil in 1871 was 1017 quintals, 

 value £3814..' 



Chemical Composition — Galileo Pallotta, at Naples, in 1824?, first 

 attempted to obtain from sarsaparilla a peculiar principle, which he be- 

 lieved to be an alkaloid, and termed Pariglina, or as now written 

 Parillin. He exhausted the crude drug with boiling water and mixed 

 the decoction with milk of lime, whereby a greyish precipitate was pro- 

 duced. This was dried, and treated with hot alcohol which extracted 

 the parillin. Pallotta says the substance slightly reddens litmus, but 

 does not explicitly state whether he got it in crystals or not. Berzelius 

 in 1826 replaced the name pariglina by Smilacin. The same substance 

 was obtained, more or less pure, by Thubeuf in 1831 and called Salse- 

 parin ; Batka in 1833 termed it Parillinic acid. We have isolated 

 parillin" by exhausting Mexican sarsaparilla with boiling alcohol, 0835 

 sp. gr., and evaporating the tincture to ^ of the weight of the root. 

 By diluting 2 parts of the residue with 3 parts of cold water, a yellowish 

 deposit of crude parillin is formed and may be separated after a few days 

 by decantation. The deposit is then mixed with about half a volume 

 of strong alcohol, now filtered and washed with dilute alcohol, about 

 096 5 sp. gr. It may further be purified by repeated re-crystallization 

 from dilute alcohol and the use of a little charcoal The yield is about 

 019 per cent, of perfectly white crystallized parillin ; a little more may 

 be removed from the washings, but with much difficulty. These liquids 

 and the mother liquors may be concentrated and boiled with a little 

 sulphuric acid in order to afford parigenin. 



PariUin forms brilliant scales, or can be obtained in thin prisms from 

 boiling alcohol 0"965 sp. gr. Parillin is almost insoluble in cold water, 

 but dissolves in 20 parts of boiling water. On cooling, the latter solu- 

 tion affords no crystals ; an abundance of them are however produced 

 on addition of alcohol. Parillin is also soluble in 25 parts of alcohol, 

 0'814 sp. gr., at 25° C, and much more abundantly in boiling alcohol, from 

 which it partly separates in crystals on cooling. In both absolute 

 alcohol or water, parillin is less soluble than in dilute alcohol. Hence 

 aqueous solutions are precipitated by absolute alcohol, and parillin, on 

 the other hand, separates from alcoholic solutions on addition of cold 

 water. With chloroform, parillin yields a viscid solution which affords 

 no crystals. 



The alcoholic solutions of parillin have a somewhat acrid taste, and 

 are devoid of rotatory power. 



By dilute mineral acids, parillin is resolved into Parigenin and 

 sugar ; the liquid gradually acquires a dingy brown or greenish hue 

 and fluorescence, which is most obvious if parillin dissolved in chloro- 

 form is decomposed by hydrochloric gas. Parigenin is easily isolated ; 



^ Vice-Consul Smith on the commerce of - Yearbook of Phami. 1878. 136. 



Ecuador — Consular Reports, presented to 

 Parliament, .Inly. 1872. 



