794 INDUS MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



possess the specific properties of Quinine and Ipecacuanha, a 

 most valuable drug would be added to our remedies for tropical 

 diseases " (Watt,). 



" In dysentry the seeds would seem to be given for the most part in de- 

 coction. This was prepared as follows ; \ to 3 drachms of the seeds were 

 placed in 12 oz. of water, boiled down to 4 oz. and strained. The fluid thus 

 obtained was given in one dose and this was repeated every morning," (p. 72, 

 First Rept. Ind. Drugs. Com.). 



According to the late Dr. Amulya Charan Basn, in the very acute stage of 

 dysentry, the bark does more harm than good. It should be used when the 

 more acute symptoms have passed off and in the chronic form of the disease. 

 Only the fresh bark should be employed. Barks even a few days old are 

 almost useless. Liquid extracts and other preparations made from the fresh 

 bark keep well and may be used when the fresh bark is not available, (p. 148. 

 First Rept. Ind. Drugs Com.) 



" The powdered bark suspended in a strained decoction or infusion of 

 Plantago ovata is very efficacious in dysentry, where Ipecacuanha cannot be 

 tolerated. (First Ind. Drug. Com. Rept. p. 159). 



Ohemical composition.— The bark and seeds contain a basic substance 

 (Wrightine), to prepare which the pulverised seeds are treated with carbonic 

 disulphide in a displacement apparatus to remove a fat oil, then dried and 

 exhausted with hot alcohol ; the extract freed from alcohol by distillation, is 

 digested with a small quantity of dilute hydrochloric acid, and the evaporated 

 filtrate is mixed with ammonia or sodic carbonate, which throws down a 

 copious flocculent precipitate, consisting of the impure base. 



Wrightine after washing with cold water forms an amorphous powder, 

 insoluble in ether and in carbonic disulphide, soluble in water and alcohol, and 

 especially in dilute acids, with which it forms uncrystallisable salts having like 

 the base itself a persistent bitter taste. The acetic acid solution is pre- 

 cipitated by tannic acid ; the hydrochloric acid solution gives flocculent 

 precipitates with platinic, auric, and mercuric chlorides. (Stenhouse, Phar. 

 Jour. (2), V. 493.) R. Haines (Ibid., VI., 432) states that he obtained the same 

 base from Conessi bark in 1858, and gave a short description of it in the Trans- 

 actions of the Medical and Physical Society of Bombay (New Series IV., 38). 

 He proposed to call it Conessine, and calculates, from the analysis of the free 

 base, and of the platinum salt, the formula C as H" N O. 



The seeds have recently been again investigated by Herr Warnecke 

 {Berichte, XIX, 60), who has obtained from them a crystalline alkaloid by 

 exhausting them with ether containing a little hydrochloric acid, digesting 

 the extract with water and precipitating with ammonia, washing the yellow 

 flocculent precipitate with water, and then after drying it over Sulphuric 

 acid dissolving it in petroleum spirit and evaporating. The pure alkaloid is 

 described as occurring in delicate colourless anhydrous needles, having a 

 bitter taste, becoming yellow at 60° to 70°C., and melting at 122°C. The 

 alkaloid readily forms salts with acids, the hydrochlorate being crystalline. It 

 is difficultly soluble in water, but freely soluble in alcohol, ether, chloroform, 



