56 
A CHEMICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL EXAMINATION 
Rhizoconine is readily separated from the “ sethereal extract ” by means of 
alcohol. The residue obtained by evaporation of the alcoholic solution is treated 
with aether, which dissolves out the rhizoconine. It is easily soluble in alcohol, 
sether, and chloroform ; the solutions are neutral to test paper. From alcohol 
and chloroform rhizoconine separates partly in the form of indistinct squarish 
crystalline masses, and partly as a soft waxy matter. From an sethereal solution 
it is deposited in the form of rich yellowish-brown radiating transparent prisms 
of considerable length, but of soft consistence. However obtained, it pos¬ 
sesses a very diffusive, persistent, and slightly pungent odour, strongly re¬ 
sembling that of a dirty tobacco-pipe. 'Compared with nicotylia, the odour is 
heavier and somewhat peculiar. Its taste is at first slightly bitter and minty, 
but it soon becomes subacrid and tobacco-like, and leaves a slight but persistent 
numbing sensation upon the tongue. Without undergoing solution to any appre¬ 
ciable extent, it imparts to water and to the dilute mineral acids its characteristic 
taste. The aqueous solution is neutral, and gives no precipitate with either 
nitrate of silver, chloride of mercury, acetate of lead, or sulphate of copper. 
The strong mineral acids have no particular effect upon it: rubbed with strong 
sulphuric acid a dark brown muddy mixture results. It fuses at 160° Fahr. 
and above 500° gives off abundant white fumes of a disagreeable odour; it then 
chars and burns, leaving no ash. Boiled with solution of caustic potash, no 
alkaline vapours arise. 
Rliizoconylene .—This is a colourless crystalline body, obtained from the 
u sethereal extract ” by means of alcohol, which, dissolving out the rhizoconine 
and conamarine, leaves the rhizoconyleue. It is insoluble in water and nearly 
so in cold alcohol, but at 175° Fahr. the latter takes up about It dissolves 
readily in both sether and chloroform, and separates from the former in long, 'Iry, 
brilliant prisms, apparently possessing a rectangular base. From hot alcohol it 
is deposited in hard brilliant stellse, composed of short but very sharply acumi¬ 
nated prisms. Its solutions are neutral, and it is destitute of taste and odour. 
In the cold, the strongest sulphuric, nitric, and hydrochloric acids have no 
action upon it. When boiled with solution of caustic potash, no alkaline fumes 
are evolved. The crystals melt at about 212° Fahr., and assume a brown colour. 
Above 600° Fahr. the fused mass is wholly dissipated into white fumes possessing 
a faint, somewhat fatty odour. 
Conamarine .—When the u sethereal extract ” is treated with alcohol, rhizo¬ 
conine and conamarine are dissolved away, leaving the rliizoconylene. The 
alcoholic solution of the former is evaporated to dryness, and the two bodies 
separated by means of sether, which dissolves away the rhizoconine. Conama¬ 
rine is an intensely bitter brownish-green resin, freely soluble in alcohol and 
chloroform, but wholly insoluble in sether. When heated with solution of 
caustic potash, it evolves an offensive odour like that of the urine of a carnivo¬ 
rous animal. 
With this introduction, I must leave these substances to some one better qua¬ 
lified than myself to determine their composition and relationship. I thought 
at first that they were the products of the decomposition of conia at a high 
temperature in the presence of caustic potash and organic matters ; but the fol¬ 
lowing observations upon the extract of the root induce me to regard them now 
as natural constituents of the plant, related more closely perhaps to the oleo- 
resin of the plant, than to its active principle. 
II. Having liquified a portion of the extract of the root (described above), I 
washed it thoroughly with a mixture of sether and chloroform, and having sepa¬ 
rated the latter, distilled it from a hot water bath. A small quantity of light 
yellowish-brown oily matter of neutral reaction was obtained. It had a faint- 
fatty non-characteristic odour, and a warm, slightly bitter, rancid taste. 
Heated with caustic potash it evolved no odour of conia. After the mixture 
