January 13,1872.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
573 
Uromtaijs of Scientific Societies. 
SOCIETY OF ARTS. 
Dyes and Dye-Stuffs other than Aniline.* 
BY DR. CRACE-CALVERT, F.R.S. 
Lecture IV. 
Quercitron, Fustic , Persian Perries , JFeld, Aloes , Turmeric , 
Annatio , Ilixanthine, Lakao , Tannin matters , Gall-nuts , 
Sumach, Pivi-divi, Myrobalans, Catechu. 
{Continued from page 538.) 
"We shall now pass to the study of another colonring 
matter, called old fustic. The tree which supplies it is 
called Morus tinctoria, and grows in the Brazils, Mexico, 
and in Jamaica, Cuba and other islands of the West 
Indies. It arrives in this country in logs of various 
sizes. Dyers prefer those which are dense, are not 
worm-eaten, and which are of a fine orange-yellow tint 
in the inside. 
In this case again my master, M. Chevreul, was the 
first to isolate the two colouring matters which the wood 
contained. To the first of these Wagner gave the name 
of morintannic acid , and to the second that of moric acid. 
To extract these, rasped fustic is boiled twice with water, 
and the solution concentrated to the state of a syrup, 
when after a few days a crystalline deposit takes place, 
which is separated, washed rapidly with cold water and 
pressed. To separate the two colour-giving principles, 
the pressed mass is treated with boiling water, which 
leaves the moric acid as an insoluble mass, while the 
morintannic acid is dissolved. The moric acid is treated 
with weak hydrochloric acid, to remove some lime salts; 
it is then dissolved in alcohol, from which it crystallizes 
in the form of yellow needles. To obtain the morin¬ 
tannic acid which was dissolved, the solution is concen¬ 
trated, when the colouring matter crystallizes out, and 
only requires recrystallizing once or twice from acidu¬ 
lated water to give it almost pure. It forms yellow 
crystals, soluble in alcohol, which have the formula 
Ci 3 H 10 O 6 . It gives a greenish-black precipitate, with 
sulphate of protoxide of iron, and, with salts of lead, a 
yellow precipitate soluble in acetic acid. It is decom¬ 
posed by concentrated alkalies, and when boiled with 
zinc and sulphuric acid, the solution assumes a very 
bright red colour, due to the transformation of morin¬ 
tannic acid into two most interesting substances, pldoro- 
glucine and macliromine. 
Moric acid, though insoluble in water, is freely soluble 
in alcohol and ether, but is insoluble in bisulphuret of 
carbon. It is soluble in alkalies, to which it gives a 
yellow colour, and from this solution it is reprecipitated 
by the addition of an acid. Perchloride of iron com¬ 
municates to its alcoholic solution an olive-green shade. 
It gives yellow precipitates with salts of zinc, tin, lead 
and alumina, and a dark green precipitate with copper. 
It has the formula C 12 H 8 0 3 . 
Old fustic is especially employed for dyeing wools in 
yellow or olive-green shades. They are mordanted 
with a salt of alumina for yellow, or with a salt of iron 
for green. By the employment of salts of copper and 
other mordants a variety of shades can be obtained. It 
is much used by dyers, but only to a limited extent by 
calico-printers. 
Young fustic belongs to the same genus as sumach, of 
which I shall speak further on, and its botanical name 
is Rhus Cotinus. It grows in the West Indies, and in 
France and the southern parts of Europe. It is found 
in commerce in the form of small logs and crooked 
branches. Young fustic contains a tannin matter and 
three colour-giving principles, a red, a brown and a 
yellow. The yellow colouring matter, when isolated 
and crystallized, bears the name of fustine. It is soluble 
* Cantor Lecture, delivered Tuesday, Feb. 28. Reprinted 
from the Journal of the Society of Arts. 
in water, alcohol and ether. Alkalies communicate to 
it a fine orange hue. It rapidly oxidizes when exposed 
to the atmosphere, assuming an orange colour. A decoc¬ 
tion of the wood is affected by the alkalies and air in the 
same manner as fustine. It gives a bright orange pre¬ 
cipitate with lime and baryta waters, and a similar 
coloured precipitate with chloride of tin. Persulphate 
of iron yields with it an olive-green precipitate. Young- 
fustic dyes wool mordanted with salts of alumina a fine 
orange colour, but it is easily affected by light; its chief 
employment is in conjunction with cochineal, to the rod 
colour of which it imparts a brilliant orange hue. It is 
much used in Turkey and the Tyrol by tanners, to im¬ 
part to their leather an orange-yellow colour. 
Persian berries , which are extensively employed by 
woollen and mixed fabric dyers, calico-printers, paper- 
stainers and leather-dressers, are the berries or fruit of 
a genus of plants called Nerprun , which grows freely in 
France, Spain, Turkey, Persia, etc. Generally speaking, 
the berries are gathered before they are quite ripe, which 
is the reason why the berries, which are the size of a 
small pea, have a yellowish-green shrivelled appear¬ 
ance. The berries only give good results when recently- 
gathered ; after one or two years they lose a great deal 
of their value, not yielding to the dyers such brilliant 
hues. The yellower they- are, the less price they com¬ 
mand in the market. They bear among the dealers the 
names of the countries from which they are imported ; 
thus there are Avignon berries, Spanish berries, Turkish 
berries and Persian berries. The latter are the best, 
and are obtained from the Rhamnus amygdalinus. Among 
dyers and calico-printers all the varieties are called Per¬ 
sian berries. 
The y r ellow decoction of the berries assumes an orange- 
yellow tint with alkalies, which is not changed on the 
addition of an acid. Lime-water gives it a greenish 
hue, persulphate of iron a greenish-yellow. Chloride 
of tin gives a greenish-yellow coloration, and a slight 
precipitate. 
Sir Robert Kane succeeded, some years ago, by- treat¬ 
ing the berries with ether, in extracting a substance, 
cry-stallizing in fine golden-yellow cry-stals, to which he 
gave the name chrysorhamnine , and assigned to it the 
formula C 23 H n O n . He found that when a solution of 
this compound was boiled in the air or in presence of an 
oxidizing agent, it became converted into a substance 
which he named xanthorhamnine , to which he gave the 
formula C 23 H 12 0 14 . 
Since then, several eminent chemists have examined 
into the nature of these colouring matters, among whom 
may be mentioned Bolley, and especially Lefort and 
Schiitzenberger. 
From their researches the following facts may be 
gathered. Lefort, in 1866, succeeded in isolating two 
colouring matters from the berries, which he named 
rhamnagine and rhamnine. Rhamnagine is soluble in 
■water, and may be obtained under the form of crystals, 
while rhamnine is an insoluble y-ellow amorphous 
powder. In researches published in 1869, he found that 
rhamnagine was identical in composition with rham¬ 
nine, and that only a molecular change took place in 
the transformation of rhamnagine into rhamnine, such 
as we are all aware starch undergoes on conversion into 
dextrine. He supported this view by analyses, show¬ 
ing that both these substances had the same formula, 
namely, C 24 H 32 0 14 . The researches of Schiitzenberger 
further proved that, under the influence ol weak sul¬ 
phuric acid, rhamnagine is decomposed into a peculiar 
sugar and a substance to which he gave_ the name 
rhamnatine , thus showing that rhamnagine is a gluco- 
side. The following formulcO show the decomposition 
which takes place:— 
C 24 II 32 0 14 + 3PLO = C 12 H 10 O 5 + 2(C 6 H 14 0 6 ). 
Bhamnagine. Water. Bkamnatiue. Sugar, 
From these results it would appear that the real 
colour-giving principle is rhamnagine, and that rham- 
