1042 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
above, upper woolly all over. Whorls distant, 2-4-fid. Calyx 
£-Jin., densely woolly, cupular, teeth short, acute ; fruiting 
closed over the nutlets with the teeth incurved. Corolla re- 
purple, lips very small, upper short, rounded. Nutlets enclosed 
in the ovoid or sub-globose calyx, usually 2, turgid, plano-convex, 
£in. long, grey, granulate. 
Use : — In the Salt Range the bruised stems are applied to 
the guinea-worm (Stewart). 
1012. Gcdeopsis Tetrahit, Linn., h.f.b.i., iv. 677. 
Habitat - Sikkim Himalaya; Fields at Lachen, altitude 
11- 12,000ft. 
A hispid* annual. Stems l-3ft. ; hairs spreading and de- 
ilexed ; Nodes very hispid, thickened. Leaves l-4in., ovate 
or ovate-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, coursely senate. Calyx 
J-fin., teeth straight, equalling or exceeding the tube. Corolla 
1-llin., yellow and purple. 
Use : — This plant deserves investigation. 
Chemistry .— When the leaves are boiled -with 1 per cent, hydro-chloric acid, 
their lower sides are covered with microscopic crystalline aggregates. 
Crystals of the same substance, scutellerin, separate when the aquous 
extract of the leaves in acidified. It is found chiefly in the leaves. 
Scutellaria, C 21 H 20 O 12 , 2) H 2 0, is prepared by extracting the leaves 
and flowers of the plant with ten times the quantity of water, and acidifying 
the extract with concentrated hydro-chloric acid, the yield is less than 1 per 
cent. The acid filtrate from the scutellarin contains cinuamic and fumaric acids. 
Scutellarin crystallises in pale-yellow needles, which darken at 200°, but 
do not melt at 310°. Lead acetate gives red precipitate with the alcoholic 
solution, and ferric chloride an intense green coloration which becomes red 
on heating. Oxidising agents (chlorine, water, etc.) give an immediate green 
colour. Alkalis, ammonia and alkali carbonates dissolve it with a deep 
yellow colour ; these solutions reduce ammoniacal silver intrate and Fehling's 
solution ; acids re-precipitate scutellarin. Concentrated sulphuric acid 
dissolves it with a yellow colour. From the solution or suspension in acetic 
acid, concentrated mineral acids throw down deep yellow or orange, crys- 
talline salts. The acetyl derivative melts and decomposes at 267.° When 
fused with potash, p-hydroxy benzoic acid and a substance, which crys- 
tallises in large plates, are formed. 
Under the action of 30-40 per cent, sulphuric acid, it is converted into 
scutellarein, C 15 H 10 D„, which melts above 300°, dissolves in alkalis with a 
yellow colour, gives a reddish brown tint with ferric chloride, an emerald- 
green colour with baryta water, and a yellowish-red precipitate with lead 
acetate. When fused with potash, scutellarein yields p -hydroxy-benzoio 
