POISONOUS GLUCOSIDES. 
§§ 570-573-] 
457 
gently, until its weight is not more than 10 grms. After adding an equal bulk of 
water and cooling, the liquid is again boiled for thirty minutes, and the strophanthidin 
extracted in a separating funnel with small quantities of chloroform, the extraction 
being continued until the liquid ceased to taste bitter. The chloroformic extract is 
dried in a desiccator and weighed ; the weight multiplied by 2T87 is equal to the amount 
of strophantin in 5 grms. of the seeds. The assay of the tincture is on similar lines. 
Pharmaceutical Preparations.—The seeds from Strophanthus lcombe are official 
in the British Pharmacopoeia. The seeds taste very bitter, and, owing to the presence 
of strophantin, sulphuric acid diluted with one-fifth of its volume of water colours the 
endosperm and sometimes the cotyledons dark green. An extract and a tincture are 
made from the seeds. In each case the powdered seeds are freed from fat by ether. 
100 grms. of the extract contain the alcohol-soluble matter of 50 grms. of the seeds. 
A litre of the tincture contains the alcohol-soluble matter of 100 grms. of the seeds. 
Although the British Pharmacopoeia does not give directions for standardising the 
preparations, certain firms physiologically test their strophantin products, and dilute 
or concentrate accordingly. 
§ 570. Scillain, or Scillitin, a glucoside which has been separated from the 
bulbs of the common squill. An amorphous powder, soluble in water and in alcohol, 
but insoluble in ether ; on hydrolysis, glucose, butyric acid, and isopropyl alcohol 
have been separated. It acts upon the heart, and is poisonous. 
§ 571. Adonidin is a glucoside which has been obtained in a crystalline condition 
from the roots of Adonis vernalis. Heyl, Hart, and Schmidt (J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 
1918), operating on 34 kilos, of leaves, failed to find any glucoside, but found a 
toxic principle in a phosphatic precipitate, which they failed to isolate. It is un¬ 
doubtedly a heart poison, similar to digitalis. 
§ 572. Oleandrin. —Oleander leaves contain two chemically different, nitrogen- 
free substances. The one is probably identical with digitalein ; but as this is not 
certain, Schmiedeberg proposes to call it provisionally neriin. The other active 
substance is essentially the same as the oleandrin of Lukomske 1 and Betelli. 2 
Oleandrin has basic properties, and is separated in the form of an amorphous mass, 
soluble in alcohol, ether, and chloroform, and slightly soluble in water when pure; but 
it can be extracted from the leaves completely by cold water ; this, according to 
Straub, is due to the solvent action of a phenolic glucoside. Schmiedeberg obtained 
a third product from African leaves, which he calls nerianthin. This, on treatment 
with sulphuric acid and bromine, gives a beautiful colour peculiar to oleander leaves. 
It is very similar in physiological and chemical properties to digitalin, and is probably 
derived by decomposition from one of the principles already described. There is 
also a product similar to digitaliresin. 
The active principles of the oleander are separated by digestion of the leaves with 
alcohol of 50 per cent., and precipitating the alcoholic extract with lead acetate and 
ammonia. The first precipitate is yellow, and is probably composed of a tannin-like 
substance ; the next precipitate is white, consisting of the lead compound of neriin. 
The precipitates are filtered off, and the filtrate concentrated ; nerianthin, after a 
while, separates in light flocks, and the filtrate from this contains some of the other 
products. 
§ 573. Neriin or Oleander Digitalin. —Neriin is, in the presence of much free 
mineral acid, precipitated by potass-bismuth iodide, a reaction first pointed out by 
Marme, 3 as useful in the isolation of the helleborins ; or it may be precipitated by 
tannin, and then the precipitate decomposed by dissolving in alcohol, and evaporating 
it to dryness with zinc oxide on the water-bath. It is next extracted by absolute 
alcohol, and precipitated by the addition of much ether. The further purification 
consists of re-solution in alcohol, and fractional precipitation by ether. If, however, 
the potass-bismuth iodide process is used, the liquid must be acidified strongly with 
sulphuric acid, and the precipitate washed with diluted sulphuric acid. The precipitate 
1 Repert. de Chimie de Wurtz et Barreswil, iii. 77, 1861. 
2 Bull. Med. di Bologna, xix. 321, 1865. 
3 Zeitschr. f. rat. Med. (3 R.), xxvi. 1, 1866. 
