494 
ON WRIGHTINE. 
duced into Europe about the middle of the last century as a valuable remedy 
in dysentery, diarrhoea, and fever, but it apparently soon fell into disuse, and is 
now almost forgotten. In India, however, it still maintains its reputation, at 
least among the native physicians. The seeds of the tree, called in Hindustanee 
Inderjow , and in Arabic Lissan al asafeer (literally, birds’ tongues), are reputed 
to resemble the bark in their medicinal properties. Mr. Waring, of Travancore, 
in a recent essay “ On the Principal Indigenous Tonics of India,” states that 
Wrightia seeds are reckoned serviceable in dysentery, diarrhoea, fevers, flatulence, 
bilious affections, etc. In the treatment of haemorrhoids they are given in the 
form of decoction made with milk, and regarded as most efficacious. 
I am indebted to Mr. Daniel Han bury for the above description, and also for 
a quantity of the seeds. 
The seeds, which contain a large quantity of a fixed oil, were reduced to a 
coarse powder by pounding,—an operation which is accomplished with some 
difficulty, owing to their greasy nature. The pounded seeds were then placed 
in a displacement apparatus and treated with a considerable quantity of cold 
bisulphide of carbon, in order to remove the fatty matter. The seeds were then 
heated in an open vessel until the mechanically-contained bisulphide of carbon 
was driven off, and they were afterwards extracted with boiling spirit of wine. 
The fatty matter which is extracted by bisulphide of carbon from Wrightia 
seeds , and which is present in large quantity, is a fixed oil, which does not 
solidify at a temperature considerably below 32° F. AVhen digested with caustic 
alkalies it is slowly decomposed, giving a solution of soap, from which acids 
precipitate a fat becoming semisolid when cold. 
After the alcohol had been removed by distillation from the alcoholic extract 
of the seeds, prepared in the manner described, the residue, which consisted 
chiefly of crude Wrightine, contaminated however with fatty matters, gum, etc., 
was digested with a small quantity of dilute hydrochloric acid, and filtered. 
The clear solution, if tolerably concentrated, when treated with ammonia or car¬ 
bonate of soda, yielded an abundant flocculent precipitate, the solution at the 
same time becoming of a deep green colour. The Wrightine was collected on 
a filter and washed with cold water. When ignited with soda-lime it evolves 
alkaline vapours and a basic oil, which solidifies to a resin on cooling. 
Wrightine is moderately soluble in boiling water and in boiling spirit of wine, 
and but slightly so in ether or bisulphide of carbon. I have not succeeded in 
obtaining it, or any of its salts, in a crystalline state. 
Wrightine readily dissolves in dilute sulphuric, nitric, hydrochloric, oxalic, or 
acetic acids ; but the solutions, however highly concentrated, only yield a resinous 
deposit, without the slightest trace of crystallization. 
Both Wrightine and its salts have an extremely persistent bitter taste. 
When digested with strong nitric acid it readily dissolves, giving off red fumes, 
and becoming oxidized into oxalic acid without the formation of any picric or 
similar acid. 
Decoction of galls produces an abundant flocculent precipitate in a solution of 
Wrightine, ii} acetic acid ; this precipitate is soluble in hydrochloric acid. 
Bichloride of platinum in solutions of Wrightine in hydrochloric acid, gives a 
pale yellow precipitate, which is not crystalline. 
Terchloride of gold a similar precipitate, only of a somewhat paler colour. 
Perchloride of mercury in solutions of Wrightine produces an abundant white 
flocculent precipitate. When the pounded seeds are boiled for some time with 
very dilute sulphuric acid, and rapidly filtered through a bag filter, the solution 
deposits on cooling a flocculent precipitate, which is difficult to collect, as it soon 
stops up the pores of the filter. On heating this precipitate after it has been 
freed from sulphuric acid by washing with cold water, it chars and burns, evolv¬ 
ing an odour similar to that of burnt starch. 
