DICOTYLEDONOUS, GAMOPETALOUS. 



RUBIACE^. 



Madder Family. 



Hymenodictyon excelsum, Wall. (//. JloriifiMii, Miq. ; Chin- 

 ohona exoeka, Roxb. ; Ewntema PhUippicmii, Blanco.) 



NoM. Vui/j. — ]Ldif/fi.fj(t, Tag. 



Uses. — The bark of this tree has a wide reputation in India 

 as a tonic and febrifuge. The inner layer of the bark possesses 

 astringent and bitter properties much like quinine. Ainslie 

 states that it is used in India to tan hides and therapeutically 

 where an astringent is required. O'Shaughnessy experimented 

 with it in the hospital of the Medical College of Calcutta and 

 reported good tonic and antipyretic effects. 



In 1870, according to Dymock, Broughton analyzed the 

 fresh bark and reported that the bitter taste was due to cticalin, 

 which after drying and coming in contact with decomposing 

 organic matter is transformed into the almost tasteless cuciddin. 

 Naylor studied the bark at a later period, and attributed the 

 bitterness to an alkaloid that he named hymenodidyonine. This 

 substance exists in the form of a gelatinous mass, cream-col- 

 ored, very hygroscopic. An ethereal solution, carefully evap- 

 orated, deposits it in the form of crystals. Its empirical form 

 is C2 H^gNj ; it is probably volatile and is notable for its lack 

 of oxygen. It differs from quinoidme in that it is inactive (?) 

 and that in combination with platinum' it retains less of this 

 metal than does quinoidine. It differs from pdririne in its pro- 

 portion of hydrogen, and from hcrheriiie in containing more car- 

 bon. In the presence of sulphuric acid its solution assumes 

 a yellow color, changing to wine-red and then to dark red. 



