746 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



night and eaten in the morning, is considered to be an ex- 

 cellent preventive against biliousness and febrile attacks 

 (Dymock). 



From the kernels, are obtained. — 



(A.) A glucoside, Sapotin C 29 W*O 20 , microscopic crystals in appearance, 

 burning taste, laevo-rotatory ([d] D— 321 in alcoholic solution), soluble in water 

 easily ; in cold alcohol sparingly, easier in hot ; insoluble in benzene, ether, 

 chloroform. It melts at 240° with decomposition. With dilute sulphuric 

 acid, it yields sugar and Saporetin C l7 B 32 O 10 which latter is soluble in alcohol 

 and chloroform, insoluble in water and ether. 



(B.) An alkaloid, Sapotine bitter in taste, insoluble in water and alkali, 

 but soluble in alcohol, ether and chloroform. 



The bark contains two resins, and a large proportion of Sapotaunic acid 

 which is the cause of its astringency. 



It is a gutta percha yielding plant. From it Chiclegum is obtained. The 

 sample examined lost 2*33 per cent, when dried at 110° and gave 4'85 per 

 cent, ash ; water dissolved 17, alcohol 60, acetone 62, ether 76, and chloroform 

 77 per cent, of the drug. 



Nothing is present that volatilises with steam. Water extracts a gum 

 mixed with a little proteid substance, which was removed by means of tannic 

 acid ; the gum forms 9 per cent, of the drug ; it is insoluble in alcohol, optically 

 inactive, yields 376 per cent, ash, and gives the a-napthol sulphuric acid 

 reaction and the reactions for f urf uraldedhyde, No oxydase is present. 



The drug was then extracted repeatedly with boiling alcohol ; from the 

 extracts, the alban crystallised on cooling, From the last extracts, v-chiclalban, 

 C 1S H 23 0, was obtained in small quantity, equal to 0*5 per cent, of the drug ; 

 it is crystalline, and melts at 86-87°. The earlier extracts contained a small 

 quantity, equal to 0'2 per cent, of the drug, of a substance sparingly soluble 

 in alcohol at 50° and melting at 219-221° ; this is a-chiclalban, C 24 H 40 O. The 

 bulk of the alban consists of B.-chiclalban, which crystallises in a variety of 

 forms, and seems, when purest to form prismatic crystals or round plates 

 which melt at 158° and have the composition C l3 H 20 O. No cinnamic or other 

 acid was obtained by boiling either the drug or B~chiclalban with alcoholic 

 potassium hydroxide ; from the alban, however, a neutral crystalline substance, 

 C 24 H 44 0, melting at 152-153°, was isolated. By concentrating the alcoholic 

 mother-liquor from the alban and pouring it into very dilute hydrochloric acid, 

 cliicla fluavil, C 10 H 20 O or C 10 H l3 O, was precipitated as a sticky, amorphous 

 substance, which melts at 65-66° when dry ; the yield was 1*5 per cent, of the 

 drug. 



The residual drug was dissolved in chloroform and the solution poured 

 into alcohol, when cliicla gutta, C l0 H 16 , was precipitated; this was crystallised 

 from ether. From trie chloroform-alcoholic mother-liquor, chiclalbanan sepa- 

 rated gradually in small amount; after recrystallising from a mixture of 

 alcohol and ether, it melts at 55-57°. 



It is noteworthy that, as with gutta-percha and balata, the fluavil has the 

 lowest, the albanan the highest, percentage of carbon, the albans being inter- 

 mediate. J. Ch. 8. LXXXVIII. pt. 2, p. 685. 



