164 CEYLON BRANCH — ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



ON COLORING MATTER 

 DISCOVERED IN THE HUSK OF THE 

 COCOA-NUT. 



BY DR. R. GYGrAX. 



(Read February 6, 1847. ) 



During some trifling experiments on the properties of the 

 Cocoa-nut husk, which I recently carried on, I found that 

 on treating this substance with a solution of about equal 

 portions of lime and salt and boiling it in the liquid, a 

 brilliant red color was produced, which I afterwards ascer- 

 tained was in combination with an acid and a fatty sub- 

 stance of peculiar properties, but which I have as yet had 

 no opportunity of analysing. To the present time I have 

 confined my examination to the coloring matter only, and 

 these are of so forcible a character in their results, that I 

 do not hesitate to declare, that the color produced from the 

 cocoa-nut husk may be well applied to the purpose of dy- 

 ing delicate fabrics such as silk or cotton. I have already 

 said that the coir fibre was treated in a boiling solution of 

 lime and salt. When recently made it is of a carmine 

 red but after remaining a time it assumes a dark orange-red 

 appearance, similar to the decoction of Brazil wood, and 

 it deposits a dark violet powder which appear to be one of 

 its coloring principles. 



Both the solution and the precipitate were exposed to 

 light and air for eight days, but no effect was perceptible 

 on either of them. 



Water and alcohol, both cold and boiling, combine readily 

 with the orange-red solution, but not so with the carmine 

 precipitate. 



From the above experiment it appears to me that coir 

 fibre contains a perfectly new alkoloid, a new fatty sub- 

 stance which I have called Cocotine, and two perfectly dis- 

 tinct coloring principles, apparently similar in their nature 

 to the Purpurine and Alizarine of the Rubia Tinctorium or 

 Madder. As yet I have not been fortunate enough to dis- 

 cover the true dissolvent for the above coloring matters, nor 

 have I been able to separate the fatty substance or Cocotine 

 from them, a process which it will be necessary to accom- 

 plish before we can avail ourselves of them as dying materials 

 for delicate fabrics. But mv experiments arc of such a recent 



