xii. a. 4 Brill and Wells: Medicinal Plants, II 179 



Infusion of Toddalia (Infusum Toddalia). Take of the root-bark of 

 Toddalia, in coarse powder one ounce; boiling water, ten fluid ounces. 

 Infuse in a covered vessel for one hour, and strain. 



Dose: From one to two fluid ounces twice or thrice daily. 



CHEMICAL EXAMINATION OF TODDALIA ASIATICA 



The brittle root bark cleared of the outer layer was finely 

 ground, dried at a low temperature, and exhausted in the usual 

 way with petroleum ether, ether, alcohol, and water. 



Petroleum ether removed a small quantity of wax and a little 

 resin, which was dissolved in a sharp-tasting pungent oil. It 

 is possibly due to the not unpleasant taste of this oil that parts 

 of the plant are used in India as a condiment. The resin is 

 easily crystallized from an ether-alcohol mixture in groups of 

 elongated prisms or needles. 



An absolute alcoholic extraction of the dried plant residue 

 gives a yellow solution which, when purified by repeated evapo- 

 rations and alternate extractions with water and alcohol, yields 

 a final aqueous solution of a greenish yellow color, giving the 

 group reactions of alkaloids. A few of the reactions are as 

 follows : 



Gold chloride, yellowish precipitate; platinic chloride, no pre- 

 cipitate; Mayer's solution, white precipitate; phosphomolybdic 

 acid, white precipitate; potassium cadmium iodide, white pre- 

 cipitate; mercuric chloride, white precipitate (light) ; potassium 

 mercuric iodide, white precipitate; Kraut's reagent, ochraceous 

 orange precipitate; picric acid, yellow precipitate; bromine, 

 orange precipitate (heavy) (darkens). Vacuum evaporation 

 leaves a thick amorphous alkaloid. A portion diluted with al- 

 cohol, spread in thin sheets and allowed to evaporate slowly, 

 formed crystals (Plate I, fig. 2). Both the hydrochloride and 

 sulphate were made, and a small quantity of crystals of each 

 was obtained. The free alkaloid both in the amorphous and 

 crystalline condition is soluble in the cold in distilled water, 

 giving a bright yellow color, and is fairly soluble in methyl 

 alcohol and ethyl alcohol, slightly soluble in acetone, chloroform, 

 and ethyl acetate, while only slight traces dissolve in ether, petro- 

 leum ether, benzene, and amyl alcohol. From this may be under- 

 stood the property which it possesses of not being easily sep- 

 arated from either alkaline or acid solutions by agitation with 

 immiscible solvents. 



The alkaloid has a persistently bitter taste, but is not as in- 

 tensely bitter as the alkaloid found in Lunasia amara Blanco. 

 The crystalline forms of the free alkaloid and of its salts seem 

 identical with those of berberine, with which comparative tests 



