2 The Philippine Journal of Science 1919 
The names albustra, abutra, albotra, and bate are all corrup- 
tions of the Spanish-American name abuta, which was brought 
from Mexico by the Spaniards. These names are also applied 
to Anamirta cocculus W. & A. of the same family, which has 
much smaller fruits and white, not yellow, wood. 
It is a coarse, woody vine, the stems up to 10 centimeters in 
diameter, with a characteristically yellow wood. The species 
is widely distributed in the Philippines, occurring in most, if 
not all, of the larger islands and provinces. However, it is 
local and widely scattered in thickets and forests, occurring 
especially on rocky slopes. No data as to its abundance were 
obtainable. 
Chemical examination. — The soft porous wood was freed from 
the thin outer bark, finely ground while fresh, and macerated 
with 95 per cent ethyl alcohol. The solution resulting from this 
exhaustion was quickly evaporated under reduced pressure to 
one-fifth its volume; it was then cooled and salts made with 
hydrochloric, nitric, sulphuric, and hydriodic acids. A few 
grams of the pure alkaloid were obtained by an aqueous extrac- 
tion of portions of the ground wood in a neutralized solution. 
Repeated extraction and evaporation with alcohol, and final crys- 
tallization from neutral ethyl acetate in a vacuum desiccator 
over calcium chloride, gave beautiful golden yellow crystals of 
the berberine base. When compounds of this nature are crys- 
tallized in a vacuum desiccator over sulphuric acid it is notice- 
able that traces of acid sulphates are formed. This was observed 
particularly when the acetone compound was placed in such a 
desiccator. The compound was identified as berberine. 
Large quantities of salts of the alkaloid were easily crystal- 
lized out with nitric, sulphuric, and hydrochloric acids. Upon 
heating, the sulphate melts to a brown amorphous mass, slightly 
soluble in water; it has an intense yellow color and a bitter 
taste, is soluble in alcohol and in hot water, and is almost insol- 
uble in ether and benzene. The solution allows precipitation 
with alkaloidal reagents and also with potassium iodide solu- 
tion. In concentrated sulphuric acid it gives an olive green 
color; a fragment of sodium nitrate added to the sulphuric acid 
solution gives a characteristic violet color. The acetone com- 
pound was obtained by the method of acetone treating the sul- 
phate of the compound in an alcoholic solution-. The resultant 
compound, which is represented as CooHi^NO^* CgHgO, was also 
obtained by treating a hot solution of 50 grams of the crystalline 
berberine sulphate in 1 liter of water. *Five hundred grams 
