86 INFLUENCE OF DRYING ON THE ACTIVE PRINCIPLES OF PLANTS. 
of a straw-yellow, very bitter substance ; from the dried leaves a little less and deeper 
yellow. 
Menyanthes trifoliata (leaves, August), yielded 0-45 grin, menyanthin ; from the 
dried leaves uncrystallizable. 
Marrubium vulgare (leaves and tops, June), yielded 0*70 crystallized marrubiin ; from 
the dried, about one half. 
Tanacetum vulgare (flowers, July). Bitter principle, darker from the dried. 
Absinthium vulgare (leaves and tops, cultivated, July). The dried yields less aromatic 
preparations, and an extract-like, bitter principle. 
Ergot (July). Carefully dried and powdered ;'it was divided into two parts, one of 
which was kept under alcohol in a well-filled bottle, the other kept dry in a paper box 
for ten months, after which time it was macerated for fifteen days in the same quantity 
of alcohol. The two portions were then treated exactly alike. The ergot was ex¬ 
hausted with alcohol in a displacement apparatus, the tincture evaporated in a water- 
bath, and finally over sulphuric acid. The extract was treated with distilled water, and 
the filtrate concentrated at the ordinary temperature over sulphuric acid. 
The extracts, exhausted by water (loss about one-fourth), yielded to ether about five- 
sixths of their weight, and the residue, about one-eighth of the alcoholic extract, was 
a red granular powder—Wiggers’ ergotin. The etherial solution, on evaporation, 
yielded fixed oil and crystallized cholesterin. The fixed oil, from the old ergot, was 
orange-red, that from the fresh (kept under alcohol) was thinner and orange-yellow. 
No other difference was thus far observed. 
The concentrated aqueous solution of the alcoholic extract had separated more of 
Wiggers’ ergotin and crystals of mycose ; the clear liquid was evaporated as before to 
near dryness (the residue of the fresh was more granular), and, since pure ether was 
without effect, treated with alcoholic ether, which on evaporation yielded yellow acicu- 
lar crystals, regarded as pure Bonjean’s ergotine (0*25 per cent, from the fresh, 0*20 from 
the old). The extract treated with alcoholic ether was entirely soluble in absolute al¬ 
cohol except a little mycose; on spontaneous evaporation a little more mycose was 
separated, and then a reddish (rather darker from old ergot) oily mass was left, consisting 
mainly of lactic acid. 
Rhus radicans (leaves, July). The distillate from the dried leaves was without odour 
and acid reaction, and did not reduce the salts of silver, platinum, and gold. 
Ruta graveolens (leaves, July). The tincture of the fresh leaves deprived of the 
alcohol by distillation separated an odorous green oil, which, removed by ether, left a 
yellowish granular glucoside of a bitter, somewhat acrid taste. From the dried leaves 
the oil was not obtained, and the glucoside merely as a brown extract. 
1 aleriana officinalis (root collected in September, from high dry situations). The 
resin of the dried root is more acrid than in the fresh. 250 grm. of the former yielded 
1 grm. valerianic acid. The distillate from the fresh root was neutral, had a slight 
odour, but on exposure to the air in the presence of alkalies, yielded 1*5 valerianic acid. 
Prunus Laurocerasus (leaves, June). Lose all their virtues by drying. 
Bryonia dioica (root, October). Results alike from the fresh and dried. 
Inula Helenium (root of second year’s growth, October). The constituents are some¬ 
what altered. The sugar is obtained from the fresh root in white hexagonal prisms, 
from the dried root granular. 
Saponaria officinalis (root, October). The saponin from the fresh root is white 
granular, from the dried amorphous coloured. 
Juniperus Sabina (leaves and tops, July). The dried yields a browner, less odorous, 
more acrid tincture. 
Aspidium Filix-mas (rhizome, September). The tincture of the dried browner and 
more acrid, but weaker in odour than from the fresh. The distillate from the latter has 
a disagreeable odour and taste, reduces the salts of the noble metals, and evaporated with 
potassa, leaves a soaplike residue,—properties which are not observed in the distillate of 
the tincture from the dried rhizome. 
His experiments lead the author to the following conclusions:— 
1. Dried plants never represent entirely the fresh. The generation of valuable con¬ 
stituents during the drying process, as valerianic acid in valerian, must be regarded as 
exceptional. 
2. The alterations produced in drying consist in the volatilization of a portion of the 
