4G 
NOTES ON ALKALOIDS AND OTHER SUBSTANCES. 
The Sugars found in fungi are : — 
1. Mannite, identical with that extracted from the manna of 
Fraxinus ornus and other kinds of Ash. 
2. Mycose or Trehalose (formula the same as cane sugar, 
Ci 2 H 22 contained in ergot and other fungi, and in a peculiar 
variety of manna from the East. It is colorless, crystallizable, very 
sweet and soluble, and ferments with difficulty. 
3. An uncrystallizable and easily fermentable sugar resembling 
honey or treacle (Isevulose). 
Other obscure gummy substances are present, and are classed 
together as “ extractive matters.” They present little interest. 
Oils and fats occur in most. Ergot contains 30 per cent., con- 
sisting of palmitin, olein, and possibly peculiar fatty acids. 
The vegetable acids of fungi comprise citric, malic, fumaric, 
oxalic, agaricic, and others. Fumaric acid is closely related to 
malic, the acid of apples ; it occurs also in Chelidonium majus and 
Fumaria officinalis. Agaricic acid is a crystallized colorless body, 
discovered by Fleury (J. Pharm. [4] x, 202) in Boletus laricis 
and Polyporus officinalis. Hamlet and Plowright established the 
presence of oxalate of lime, or acid oxalate of potassium, in 30 
species of Agaricus. In Fistulina hepatica they found 0*083 per 
cent, of free oxalic acid. See the “ Chemical Society’s Journal,” 
J 87 9, for other analyses by them. The “ fungic acid ” of Braconnot 
and earlier observers is a mixture of citric, malic, and phosphoric 
acids. Some fungi contain free acetic acid. 
Various resins have been isolated, but are not well defined. 
The coloring matters of fungi are often very characteristic, but 
are chemically still very obscure. Four yellow or orange matters 
have been made out, distinguished by giving, when viewed through 
the spectroscope, two absorption bands in the green or blue, 
differing in position. Phycoxanthine is yellow. Pezizaxanthine 
from Peziza aurantia is orange. There are also two relatives of 
the Xanthophyll or yellow coloring matter of leaves. All these are 
destroyed by light, but are not immediately altered by weak acids 
or alkalies. 
A red coloring matter was extracted by Phipson from Agaricus 
violaceus. 
From Polyporus purpuraceus occurring on oaks, and remarkable 
for turning violet with ammonia, Stahlschmidt (Liebig’s Annalen, 
clxxxvii, 177) extracted Polyporic acid^ formula Cg Og, 
constituting 43*5 per cent, of the dry fungus. It is an ochre- 
yellow powder, insoluble in water, but soluble with intense violet 
color in alkalies. It crystallizes from hot alcohol in small plates, 
having a bronzy lustre. The salts also crystallize. It belongs to 
the aromatic series, and is related to benzoic ac’d. 
A section of Boleti, notably B. luridus, contain a yellow coloring 
matter, which turns blue on exposure to air. Phipson has asserted 
that this was a derivative of aniline. But neither aniline nor its 
salts have this property. Seeing that the Indigo plant and the 
