47 
He concludes :— 
I believe it will become a favourite with all who test it. 
I have heard that the bark of A. constricta has been used as a remedy for 
worms in sheep with £! splendid” results. 
The bark contains, according to C. Palm, Kopp u. Will Jahresb ., 1803 
(“ llindc cines australischcn, der Pamilie der Apocyneen angchorenden liaumes”). 
Wolff, Asclien Analysen , i., 128.—A neutral resinous bitter principle, called by him 
alstonin , similar to cailcedrin and tulucunin, a volatile oil, smelling like camphor, 
an iron-greening tannin, gum, resin, fat, wax, protein substance, oxalic acid, and 
citric acid. r i he ash amounted to G OG per cent, of the bark, and an analysis of it 
is quoted in Watts’ Diet., vi., 1st suppt. 101. 
Mueller and Hummel, in Wittstein’s Organic Constituents of Diants, gives 
the following account of Alstonin , the alkaloid of the bark of Alstonia constricta :— 
Alstonin differs from ditamine chiefly by its behaviour towards concentrated acids, and by its 
lluorescence, which has not been recorded of the other alkaloid. 
The correctness of the above results has been disputed by ITesse, who 
expressed the opinion that the supposed alkaloid was a mixture of chlorogenine and 
porphyrine. ( Ber. 1878, p. 2175.) 
In June, 1879, Oberlin and Schlagdenliauffen* announced the isolation of 
two alkaloids from this bark, a crystallisable and an amorphous one. They found 
the bark to be soluble in ether to the extent of 1’038 per cent., and to this ethereal 
extract their attention was confined. In Dharm. Journ. [3], ix., 1059, is an 
abstract of their paper, and an account is given not only of the method of preparing 
these alkaloids, but also of their physical and chemical properties. The crystalline 
alkaloid occurring in silky tufts of brilliant, colourless, isolated, or stellate crystals, 
is styled alstonine, f while an amorphous nitrogenous residue, possessing alkaloid 
properties, obtained by spontaneous evaporation from the mother liquor, which 
yielded alstonine , is provisionally termed alstonicine. 
In 1881 an exhaustive research on this bark was contributed by Hesse to the 
Annalen der Chemie, ccv., 360, of which a careful abstract appears in the Dharm. 
Journ. [3], xi., 775. Palm’s alstonin (notwithstanding the alleged absence of 
nitrogen) was shown by Hesse to consist essentially of an alkaloid which he had 
obtained from the bark, and called chlorogenine; but as Palm’s name had priority, 
Hesse called the alkaloid alstonine ; but unfortunate confusion has arisen in Mueller 
and llummel and Oberlin and Schlagdenliauffen ( vide supra) also having given so 
descriptive a name to substances of different composition. The abstract above 
referred to gives a very lucid account of the overlapping of various researches, and 
shows how the different products obtained by different observers may be reconciled. 
t Probably IIcssoV por/thj/riw. 
° Journal df I'hartMuit’ >J dc Chimir, 
