48 
After this necessary preliminary statement, Hesse gives a full account of the pre¬ 
paration and properties of the alkaloids found hy him. They are :— 
1. AJstonine (synonymous with clilorogenine, and probably identical with Palin’s alslonin). It is a 
brown, amorphous mass, which can be rubbed to a brownish-yellow powder. Merck ( Bulletin , i, 5) speaks 
of this alkaloid as forming white, lustrous, silk-like crystals, easily soluble in ether, chloroform, or alcohol. 
It is nearly insoluble in cold water, somewhat soluble in hot water, to which it imparts an intensely bitter 
tastp. It is an antiperiodic, antiseptic, and stimulant, thus uniting the properties of quinine and strychnine. 
It is employed in typhoid and lacteal fevers. 
2. Porphyrine, a white powder found in very small quantity. 
3. Porphyrosine, the examination of which is not yet complete. 
4. Alslonidine, consisting of colourless, concentrically-grouped needles. 
Hesse believes that this list by no means completely enumerates the alkaloids 
obtainable front this interesting hark. 
It is one of the very few Australian harks which have, up to the present, 
been exhaustively examined. Eor a list of the researches on the subject see p. 21 
of my “ Bibliography of Australian Economic Botany (1892).” 
There is also a paper in Annalen der Chemie, ccv., 360-871, abstracted in 
Year-book of Pharmacy , 1881, p. 172. 
• 
The list of substances obtained from Alstonia barks (including A . scholar is ) 
are enumerated by Solin at pp. 7 and 108, and comprise the alkaloids Alstonine, 
Ditamine, Echitamine, Echitenine, Porphyrine, and Alstonidine; also the non- 
alkaloidal, non-glucosidal Echitin, the wax-like Echicerin, and the aromatic body 
Echiretin. 
As the bark is described in the Indian and Colonial Addendum to the 
Pharmacopoeia (pp. 4 and 5), it may not he out of place to reproduce the description 
here. 
The bark of A. constricta is usually in curved pieces or quills which may have a width of inches 
(64 mm.) or more, and *- inch (12 mm.) in thickness. It is covered with a thick periderm varying from 
tV to \ inch (2£ to 6 mm.) in thickness, of a rusty brown colour, strongly rugose, and marked with large 
deeply-fissured reticula. It sometimes bears small white foliaceous lichens. Internally 7 , the bark is of a 
cinnamon brown colour, and is marked with coarse longitudinal strife. On transverse section, the bark 
exhibits the dark brown periderm, covering the inner orange-brown tissues, in which may be observed with 
a lens numerous small shining particles. The fracture is short and granular in the outer layers, but fibrous 
in the liber portion. It has a faint aromatic odour, and a very bitter taste. 
Eollowing is the most recent research, from a therapeutic point of view. I 
have condensed the paper* somewhat:—- 
The genus is peculiar to tropical countries, and the sap of all the species contain caoutchouc or 
some body allied to caoutchouc. A. plumosn and other species yield the body known as Fiji rubber. Only 
three species interest us, namely, A. scholaris, A. spectabilis, and A. conslricta. 
* “Australian Bitter-bark (Alstonia constricta ), and other species,” by J. Gordon Sharp, M.D. ; Pharm. Journ., 
23rd March, 1901, p. 362. 
