KAMALA 



409 



Description. Kamala is a fine, granular, mobile powder of a dull 

 red or madder colour, without odour and almost tasteless, floating 

 when thrown on to the surface of water. Alcohol, ether, chloroform, 

 and caustic alkalies are coloured deep red by it, but 

 water has little action on it. That it is not a homo- 

 geneous powder can easily be seen by gently shaking 

 it, when a greyish portion (hairs) will aggregate on 

 the surface. 



Examined with a microscope, after the removal 

 of most of the colouring matter by solution of 

 potash, kamala will be seen to consist of glands 

 and hairs. The former, which are much smaller 

 than lupulin glands, are of a depressed globular 

 shape ; they are filled with a deep red resin, and 

 contain a number of club-shaped secreting cells 

 radiating from a common centre. The hairs are FlG 28 Fruits 

 thick-walled, curved, and usually arranged in 

 small groups. 



of Mallotus 

 philippinensis. 

 Natural size. 

 (Vogl.) 



Constituents. The most important constituent 

 of kamala is rottlerin (from Rottlera, a former 

 generic name of the tree), C 33 H 30 O 9 , which crystallises in thin 

 salmon-coloured plates. By treatment with hot caustic alkalies 

 rottlerin yields methylphloroglucin ; by reduction with caustic soda 



FIG. 229. Kamala, showing glands with their secreting cells and 

 grouped hairs. Magnified. (Moeller.) 



and zinc dust dimethylphloroglucin is produced. The same sub- 

 stances may be obtained from kosotoxin and also from filmarone 

 by similar means, thus showing a remarkable analogy between 

 these three vermifuge substances, all of them being derivatives of 



