CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE HISTORY OF BUXINE. 
195 
lagan and Gamgee will throw light on these substances, which are perhaps 
all connected with one of the new bases pointed out by these chemists to 
exist in bibiru wood. 
Again, in 1845 Winckler discovered an amorphous alkaloid P aricine in a 
false Cinchona Bark, (China Jaen vel Para fusca) which had been imported 
from Para to London, and has been attributed by Howard ( Nueva Quinologia 
ad vocem Chinchona lutea, p. 3) to Cascarilla hexandra Weddell. Wiuckler 
ascertained the presence of paricine also in the bark of Chinchona lutea 
Pa von,* * * § the so-called China Jaen pallida , or according to Howard, Yellow 
Bark of Chito and of Ynta of Pavon’s time. In 1852, Winckler stated that 
paricine is probably nothing else than bibirine, and the reactions of his alka¬ 
loid favour this opinion, which is also acknowledged by Howard.t Paricine 
also is accompanied by an intensely deep yellow matter,]; showing a perfect 
resemblance both to sipirin and buxoflavin. 
In 1864, De Vrij came to the conclusion, that in most or in all Cinchona- 
barks, an amorphous alkaloid exists, probably the same as that which Sertiir- 
ner obtained in 1829 in a very impure state, and described under the name of 
Chinoidine.% Yet even De Vrij did not succeed in completely purifying this 
alkaloid. From what he had already published on his chinoidine, I was in¬ 
duced to regard it as identical both with paricine and bibirine. 
Dr. de Yrij, however, whom I had the pleasure of seeing recently, objected 
that chinoidine is capable of decomposing the salts of ammonium. I now 
find that bibirine acts in exactly the same manner, and that crude bibirine 
or pelosine may be purified by treating it with chloride of ammonium, 
although this method of preparation does not seem to be advantageous. 
Having been favoured by Dr. de Vrij with a sample of his sulphate of chi¬ 
noidine, a yellow amorphous powder, not melting at 212° F., I find that its 
aqueous solution shows the reactions of (impure) bibirine. 
After all these statements, I believe it very probable that Bibirine, Pelo¬ 
sine, Buxine, Paricine, and Chinoidine are but one and the same alkaloid, 
which if I am correct, ought to bear the name of Buxine, which was applied 
by Faure as early as 1830 to the alkaloid of Buxus. || 
The name Chinoidine, I must observe was employed even at an earlier 
period, but it appears to be less convenient, as very different things have sub¬ 
sequently been confounded under this designation. 
Further investigations are doubtless needed to prove the correctness of the 
opinion here expressed; but should it be confirmed, the wide distribution of 
the alkaloid will be a point of interest. The mother-plants mentioned in the 
foregoing inquiry indeed belong to the natural orders of Lauracece, Menisper - 
macex, Euphorbiacece, and Rubiaceee, and others may probably be added to 
them. At the request of Mr. Hanbury I examined in this respect Bereirine, 
an alkaloid discovered by Goos in 1839 in Pereira Bark, a febrifuge used in 
Brazil, and afforded by G-eissospermum Vellosii Fr. Allem., a tree ot the order 
Apocynece. Goos described it** as a yellowish white, or somewhat reddish 
amorphous powder, having when dissolved, an intensely bitter taste ; the 
sample before me is of a rather dark brown colour and perfectly amorphous 
under the microscope. By exhausting it with bisulphide of carbon, and slowly 
* Figured in Howard’s Nueva Quinologia, plate 14. 
f Nueva Quinologia, microscop, observat. p. 9. 
X See Howard’s Nueva Quinologia, ad voc. Chinchona lutea 3, and Micr. Observat. 9. 
§ The curious process for obtaining it, is given in the Jahresbericht iiber die Fortschritte 
der Pharmacognosie, Pharmacie und Toxicologie by Wiggsrs and Husemann, 1880, 270. 
|| Journ. de Pharm. xvi. 428. 
** Bharmaceutisches Centralblatt, Leipzig, 1839. 615.; Berzelius’ Jahresbericht, 1811, 
372.; Gmelin, xvii. 317. 
