N. 0. SCKOPHULARINE®. 
935 
The following note on it was distributed ; — 
Purpose.— To test the efficiency of the root of P icrorhiza Kurroa as to a 
tonic and febribuge. For the purpose a tincture is provided, made according 
to the recipe of the British Pharmacopceiu , Indian and Colonial Addendum, 
Government of India Edition, 1901, page 50. 
Dose— J to 1 fluid drachm. 
Note.— The drug 'as an antiperiodic seems to be very inferior to quinine, 
but as a bitter tonic, is, we believe, distinctly serviceable. It is extensively 
used in' India under the n .me of Kutki, but it is far from being the only 
Kutki in the bazars, where several drugs bear this name, e.g., Black Hellebore 
and Oentiana Karroo. 
'"he root of Picrorhizu Kurroa is somewhat purgative. The active princi- 
ple Is picrorhizin. 
The authors of the Pharmacogaphia Indica say : — “ Vie can state from 
personal obseration that it is used successfully as an antiperiodic in native 
(practice its slight laxative act ion is rather beneficial than otherwise," 
Pharm. Indica, Volume III, page II)." 
Chemical composition. — A proximate analysis of this drug showed the 
following percentage composition : — 
Wax ... 
106 
Bitter principle (Picrorhizin) 
... 14-90 
Picrorhizetin 
8 85 
Organic acid ppt. by lead ... 
8'54 
Glucose 
... ll'5S 
Cathartic acid, &o. (water extract) 
9'88 
Substances dissolved by NaHO 
... 7-62 
Arabin bodies from crude fibre 
... 14-56 
Fibre ... 
... 24 00 
Moisture 
5.78 
Ash 
... 8-82 
The bitter principle is a glucoside Picrorhizin, freely soluble in water and 
alcohol, but almost insoluble in pure ether. It is acid in reaction, is not 
precipitated from solution by lead salts or tannin, but is absorbed by animal 
charcoal together with any colouring matter that is present. It is best 
obtained by exhausting the powdered drug with crude ether, and is left, after 
the evaporation of the ether, in brown resinoid drops which form ramified 
crystals on standing. It is difficult to obtain the picrorhizin in a crystalline 
condition after heating or after solution in water. Any wax removed by the 
crude ether can be separated from the dry extract by petroleum spirit, which 
has no solvent action on the bitter principle. The picrorhizin is decomposed 
by hydrolizing it with a boiling 1 per cent, solution of hydrochloric acid for 
three hours, and a decomposition product, which we have named Picrorhizetin 
is formed together with glucose. In obtaining 0'7 gram of picrorhizetin ’868 
gram separated during the first hour, '219 gram in the second hour, *113 gram 
in the second hour, '118 gram in the third hour, and none in the fourth. 
Weighed quantities of the picrorhizin, after drying at 100 C C., afforded, on 
hydrolysis, 62'48 and 62 79 per cent, of picrorhizetin, as the result of two 
