746 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
night and eaten in the morning, is considered to be an ex- 
cellent preventive against biliousness and febrile attacks 
(Dymock). 
From the kernels, are obtain^!. — 
(A.) A glucoside, Sapotin C^IP'OjIq, microscopic crystals in appearance, 
burning taste, laevo-rotatory ([d] D — 321 in alcoholic solution), soluble in water 
easily; in cold alcohol sparingly, easier in hot ; insoluble in benzene, ether, 
chloroform. It melts at 240° with decomposition. With dilute sulphuric 
acid, it yields sugar and Saporetin C 17 B S2 O 10 which latter is soluble in alcohol 
and chloroform, insoluble in water and ether. 
(B.) An alkaloid, Sapotine bitter in taste, insoluble in water and alkali, 
but soluble in alcohol, ether and chloroform. 
The bark contains two resins, and a large proportion of Sapotaunic acid 
which is the cause of its astringency. 
It is a gutta percha yielding plant. From it Cbiclegum is obtained. The 
sample examined lost 2'83 per cent, when dried at 110° and gave 4'85 per 
cent, ash; water dissolved 17, alcohol 60, acetone 62, ether 76, and chloroform 
77 per cent, of the drug. 
Nothing is present that volatilises with steam. Water extracts a gum 
mixed with a little proteid substance, which was removed by means of tannic 
acid ; the gum forms 9 per cent, of the drug ; it is insoluble in alcohol, optically 
inactive, yields 3‘76 per cent, ash, and gives the a-napthol sulphuric acid 
reaction and the reactions for furfuraldedhyde. No oxydase is present. 
The drug was then extracted repeatedly with boiling alcohol ; from the 
extracts, the alban crystallised on cooling, From the last extracts, v-chiclalban, 
0 15 H 28 O, was Obtained in small quantity, equal to 0 5 per cent, of the drug ; 
it is crystalline, and melts at 86-87°. The earlier extracts contained a small 
quantity, equal to 0 2 per cent, of the drug, of a substance sparingly soluble 
in alcohol at 50° and melting at 219-221° ; this is a-chiclalban, C 28 H 80 O. The 
bulk of the alban consists of B.-chiclalbun, which crystallises in a variety of 
forms, and seems, when purest to form prismatic crystals or round plates 
which melt at 158° and have the composition C, 3 H 20 O. No cinnamic or other 
acid was obtained by boiling either the drug or B—chiclalban with alcoholic 
potassium hydroxide ; from the alban, however, a neutral crystalline substance, 
C 24 H 44 0, melting at 162-153°, was isolated. By concentrating the alcoholic 
mother-liquor from the alban and pouring it into very dilute hydrochloric acid, 
chicla fluavil, C l0 H 20 O or C 10 H, s O, was precipitated as a sticky, amorphous 
substance, which melts at 65-66° when dry ; the yield was l - 5 per cent. of*the 
drug. 
The residual drug was dissolved in chloroform and the solution poured 
into alcohol, when chicla gutta, C 10 H 16 , was precipitated; this was crystallised 
from ether. From tne chloroform-alcoholic mother-liquor, chiclalbanan sepa- 
rated gradually in small amount; after recrystallising from a mixture of 
alcohol and ether, it melts at 55-67°. 
It is noteworthy that, as with gutta-percha and batata, the fluavil has the 
lowest, the albanan the highest, percentage of carbon, the albans being inter- 
mediate, J. Ch. 8. LXXXVIII. pt. 2, p, 685. 
