[ 106 ] 



ON THE IDENTITY OF BAPHINITONE WITH 

 HOMOPTEEOCAEPIN. 



By PROFESSOR HUGH RYAN and REV. E. FITZGERALD, 



University College, Dublin. 



[Read January 13. Published February 12, 1913.] 



Preliminaey to an investigation of the red dyes which are found contained in 

 sanderswood (Fterocarpus santalinus and F. indicus) and barwood {Baphia 

 nitida), we deemed it desirable to examine the colourless crystalline 

 substances discovered by Cazeneuve' in 1874, and by Anderson- in 1876, 

 associated with these dyes, in the expectation that their study might throw 

 some light on the constitution of the dyes. 



By the extraction of a dried mixture of sanderswood and slaked lime with 

 alcoholic ether and evaporation of the solvent, Cazeneuve obtained a mixture 

 of platy crystals of pterocarpin (OjoHuOis) and needles of homopterocarpin 

 (CsiHjiOc). The latter substance melted at 82-86° 0., and in an approximately 

 5 per cent, solution in chloroform had a specific rotatory power : — 



[«y] = - 199°, 



while the specific rotation of pterocarpin was found to be : — 



[a,] = - 211°. 



Cazeneuve and Hugounenq^ described two bromine derivatives of homo- 

 pterocarpin, the one having the formula CojUosBrOe and the other the 

 formula CjiHisBrsOc. 



By exhausting barwood with anhydrous methylated ether and evaporating 

 the greater part of the solvent, Anderson obtained a small quantity of platy 

 crystals, which he termed baphic acid (CojHjjOio) ; while the parent liquid 

 from these crystals gave, after addition of alcohol, on standing a few days, an 

 impure substance, baphiin (CizHioOi),,. By repeatedly crystallising the baphiin 

 from alcohol or ether, it was obtained as colourless plates or needles, which 

 melted in part below 200° C, and in part above that temperature. The 



' Comptes Eendus, civ, p. 1722. '■^ Journ. Chem. Soe., p. 582. ^ Comptes Rendus, cvii, p. 737. 



