xii. a. 4 Brill and Wells: Medicinal Plants, II 191 



according to the method of van Rijn " and was evaporated. A 

 crystalline substance was obtained. This compound reduced 

 Fehling solution on prolonged boiling. Tests for alkaloids by 

 the usual methods showed no such compounds present. 



Four hundred grams of fresh bark were macerated with hot 

 water, the extract was filtered, and the filtrate was evaporated 

 to a thick syrup under vacuum and then repeatedly extracted 

 with 80 per cent ethyl alcohol. A yield of 11.091 grams of 

 pale yellow crystals was obtained. When purified by recrystal- 

 lization from hot dilute alcohol, this compound forms a mass 

 of colorless crystals by quick crystallization and groups of plates 

 or flat prisms by slow crystallization. 



Four hundred grams of quickly dried bark were first extracted 

 by petroleum ether and then by ether. Neither of these solu- 

 tions contains alkaloids and but slight traces of the above- 

 mentioned compound. The residual plant material was treated 

 with a mixture of 90 per cent alcohol and chloroform and filtered 

 hot. This solution treated with water liberates a considerable 

 amount of crystallizable compound of the same nature as that 

 obtained by the method of van Rijn. It is purified by repeated 

 crystallization from dilute alcohol. 



The nature of the active principle of Hymenodictyon excelsum 

 seems to be accepted by some as sesculin and by others as an 

 alkaloid. Broughton 42 found sesculin in Hymenodictyon excel- 

 sum by extracting the bast material with hot water, evaporating 

 the filtered solution, mixing it with magnesia, and evaporating 

 and extracting the residual mass with strong alcohol. By con- 

 centrating this filtrate and letting it stand twelve hours, he 

 obtained prismatic crystals which on acid hydrolysis gave sescu- 

 letin and a sugar. Broughton also found that the bitter taste is 

 not obtained from the dry bark, and he concludes that in drying 

 the sesculin is converted to sesculetin. 



Naylor 43 denies Broughton's conclusion of the compound being 

 sesculin and alleges that Hymenodictyon excelsum contains an 

 alkaloid which he terms "hymenodictyonine." Naylor's second 

 method of extraction and the one he recommends is as follows : 



Mix the ground bark with I weight of lime and convert into a thick 

 paste with H 2 0, dry and exhaust the mixture with chloroform. Extract 

 the chloroform mixture with dilute sulphuric acid solution, precipitate the 

 alkaloid with sodium hydroxide solution, and extract with ether. Repeat 

 to purify. 



41 Op. cit., 288. 



12 Broughton, Jahresber. d. Pharmacog., Pharm., u. Toxic. (1868), 3, 81. 



"Naylor, W. A. H., Pharm. Journ. & Trans. (1883-4), 14, 311. 



