PRESIDENT’ S ADDRESS SECTION B. 
35 
berberine. In Artar root (X senegalense, DC.), Griacosa has found 
an interesting alkaloid called artarine. Indian species are used in 
medicine, and their chemistry is dealt with in the PharmacograpJiia 
indie a , i., 258. 
To Dr. T. L. Bancroft,* * * § however, belongs the credit of first- 
inquiring into the physiological effects of an Australian Xanthoxglon . , 
X. veneficum , Bail. “The action it causes, when injected into warm- 
blooded animals, seems much like that of strychnine ; yet upon frogs 
it does not cause tetanus.” I trust these investigations will be con- 
tinued, and with the co-operation of a chemist who will undertake to 
make a complete analysis of the bark. Dr. Bancroft also draws 
attention to the properties of the bark of Melicope erythrococca , Benth.,f 
allied to Xanthoxglon . 
Olacinece. — The late Sir William Macarthur pointed out nearly 
forty years ago that the bark of Yillaresia Moorei , F. v. M., contains 
a peculiar and little-known bitter principle. What is it? 
Leg miin osce. — The bark of Acacia ienerrima , Jungh., contains, 
according to Greshoff,J a bitter poisonous alkaloid, readily soluble in 
ether and chloroform. No alkaloid has been previously found in an 
Acacia, and the discovery should stimulate Australian chemists to 
further investigations on our own barks, as the bitterness of those 
already examined for bitter principles has hitherto always been 
ascribed to a saponin. 
The Sennas of the Pharmacopoeia consist of the leaflets of two 
species of Cassia , which owe their properties mainly to the presence 
of a glucoside acid called cathartic acid. We have several species of 
Cassia , and it might be seen whether any of them possess purgative 
properties. Such an investigation might very readily be carried out 
by a pharmaceutical chemist. 
The leaves of various species of Davie sia (and particularly 
D. latifolia , B. Br.) are so intensely bitter as to have earned the 
name of Native Hops. They have long been used medicinally in 
various ways by country people, yet their active principle has never 
been isolated. This is another research that could readily be under- 
taken by a country pharmaceutical chemist. 
The roots and even leaves of the common purple-flowered 
Hardenbergia monophylla, Benth., are commonly but wrongly known 
as Native Sarsaparilla, and they are often used as a substitute for 
the true colonial Sarsaparilla (Srnilax glycyphylla, Sm.). The impres- 
sion that Hard enb erg in- is a valuable medicine is, however, so wide- 
spread, that it would appear desirable to make a chemical investiga- 
tion of the plant to see if there is any scientific foundation for the 
belief. Rennie§ and Alder- Wright find the glucoside glycyphyllin 
in Smilax glgcypJiglla. Acids convert the glucoside into phloretin 
and isodulcite. 
Rosacea. — Buchner|| has incompletely examined Geum urbanum , 
Linn., a European and Australian plant. He finds itj to contain 
* Proc. R.S. N.S.W, xx., 70 (1886) ; Proc. Intercol. Med. Cong., ii. (Melbourne, 
1890). 
f Proc. R.S. Qd., vii. (1890). 
J Ber., xxiii., 3537 ; Journ. Chem. Soc., lx., 336. 
§ Proc. R.S. N.S.W., xx., 213; Journ. Chem. Soc., xxxix., 237, xlix., 857. 
|| Repert. Pharm., lxxxv., 184. 
