CRUDE DRUGS. 



485 



soluble in alcohol but nearly insoluble in water, and becoming 

 greenish-brown with ferric salts, whence some consider it to be 

 a kind of tannin and have named it gentiotannic acid ; quercitrin, 



Fig. 210. Longitudinal (A) and transverse (B) sections of gentian: a, cork; b, a 

 kind of hypodermal layer; c, sieve; f, cambium; e, elongated fibef-like cells; h, somewhat 

 elongated parenchyma cells; g, short parenchyma cells. — After Meyer. 



or an allied product, crystallizing in yellowish needles ; gentianose, 

 a crystalline carbohydrate which occurs in the fresh root and 

 which does not reduce Fehling's solution; 12 to 15 per cent, of 

 glucose ; and pectin. Gentian also contains two other glucosides : 



