250 
ON COLCHICIA. 
Plantago, Arum macidatum, etc., even the common onion, give, more or less, quite the 
same reactions which the experts observed during their investigations.” 
Reithner (Wittstein’s Yierteljahresschrift, iv. 481) examined the flowers of Colchicum 
autumnale , and found colchicia combined with tannin. 
Professor K. Schroff, of Vienna, experimented with various parts of colchicum and 
with colchicia prepared by Merk, of Darmstadt, by Geiger’s process; the seeds had 
yielded him from four to six drachms of alkaloid per hundredweight; it was a light 
yellow crystalline powder, possessing otherwise the properties and reactions given by 
Geiger, among the latter particularly the reaction by concentrated sulphuric (yellowish- 
brown colour) and nitric acid (violet, indigo-blue, green and yellow colour). (Oesterr. 
Zeitschr. f. prakt. Heilkunde, 1856; see also, Ainer. Journ. of Pharmacy, 1857, 324.) 
In Comptes Rendus, Dec., 1856 (see Amer. Journ. of Pharmacy, 1857, 235), L. 
Oberlin denied the existence of an alkaloid in Colchicum autumnale , and announces the 
discovery of colchiceine, C 35 H 2 . 2 N O n , a neutral poisonous principle, not precipitated by 
tincture of galls or bichloride of platinum, nearly insoluble in water, soluble in dilute 
acids with yellow colour, and turning yellow, violet, deep red, light red, and yellow, 
with concentrated nitric acid. 
Previous to the publication of this paper, four essays had been handed in to the 
officers of the North German Apothecaries’ Association, in answer to a prize query on 
colchicia, propounded for the year 1855-56. The first prize was awarded to Albrecht 
Aschoff, the second to Gust. Bley. The results of these investigations were reported on 
in Archiv der Pharmacie, 1857, Jan. 1-27. A condensed account of Aschoff’s process 
for preparing the alkaloid from the corms is found in Parrish’s Pharmacy, 2nd edition, 
p. 414, 3rd edition, p. 659. The cold infusion is precipitated by subacetate of lead, 
from the filtrate the lead is separated by carbonate of soda, the filtrate is precipitated 
by tannin, the precipitate washed, pressed, dissolved in alcohol, decomposed by freshly 
precipitated oxide of iron, the filtrate evaporated, dissolved in a mixture of absolute 
alcohol and ether, evaporated, dissolved in water and evaporated. One pound of dry 
corms, gathered in October, yielded 6'5 grs., gathered in November 4 grs., gathered in 
May -75 gr., young corms -65 gr. 
By the same method, 2 lbs. of fresh flowers, with the subterranean portion attached, 
equal to 4£ oz. dry, yielded 7 grs., the same weight of flowers cut off above the ground, 
only 2 grs. of colchicia. 
The seeds were boiled with water, expressed, the decoction neutralized by lime, boiled, 
filtered, and evaporated, the extract exhausted with alcohol, distilled, the residue ex¬ 
tracted with water, the solution precipitated by tannin, and the precipitate treated as 
above, 10 lbs. of ripe seeds yielded 160 grs. of colchicia, unripe seeds the same 
quantity. 
G. Bley obtained much less colchicia ; he exhausted by alcohol, acidulated with sul¬ 
phuric acid, neutralized with lime, evaporated, dissolved in water, and treated the pre¬ 
cipitate by carbonate of potassa with alcohol and animal charcoal; most of the colchicia 
must have remained in the mother liquor. 
Hiibschmann (Schweiz. Zeitschr. fur Pharm., 1857, no. 2) obtained from 100 lbs. of 
seed i oz. of colchicia, light yellow and amorphous, which would not neutralize the acid 
reaction of two drops dilute sulphuric acid. 
The inaugural essay of John E. Carter, “ On Colchicia,” is printed in this Journal, 
1858, pp. 205-211. lie prepared the alkaloid from the corms by a process similar to 
Aschoff’s for the seeds, but used hydrated oxide of lead for decomposing the tannate, 
and obtained 20 grs. of colchicia from 3 lbs. or 6’66 grains per pound, thus agreeing 
with Aschoff’s results. 
G. E. Walz (N. Jahrhuch fur Prakt. Pharm., xvi. 1) states that he obtained colchicia 
in white rhombic crystals ; by boiling the aqueous solution with dilute acids colchiceine 
was obtained, and the filtrate reduced an alkaline solution of copper. 
In the following year (1862) H. Ludwig and Pfeiffer prepared impure yellowish-brown 
colchicia from the seed, by boiling them with alcohol, distilling, diluting with water, 
separating from the oil, precipitating by tannin, drying with oxide of lead, exhausting 
with hot alcohol, distilling, filtering, and evaporating. This impure body was dissolved 
in v^ater and precipitated by tannin in two fractions ; the colchicia from the second 
fraction was less freely soluble in water. By slowly evaporating with sulphuric acid, 
crystallizable colchiceine was obtained, and the mother liquor did not reduce an alkaline 
