462 POISONS I THEIR EFFECTS AND DETECTION. [§§ 582, 583. 
drops of alcohol are added. After well shaking, the fluid is set aside for 
twenty-four hours to completely separate, or it may be centrifuged. 
The watery solution will now contain the saponin, the ether the phenol. 
The watery solution may be concentrated at a temperature not 
exceeding 60°, and finally dried in a vacuum. 
The haemolytic action of the residue may be tested : the test requires 
the following solutions :— 
1. Physiological salt solution (9 : 1000). 
2. One per cent, solution of defibrinated blood. 
3. Blood corpuscles equivalent to No. 2 mixed with No. 1 salt solution. 
This is obtained by centrifuging 100 c.c. of 1 per cent, solution of blood 
and collecting the sediment, and adding this sediment to 100 c.c. 
of No. 1. 
To test the haemolytic action 0-1 grm. of the residue is dissolved in 50 c.c. 
of No. 1. Into three test tubes are placed 10 c.c. each of solutions No. 2 
and 3, and then 1, 2, and 3 c.c. of the diluted saponin residue in the same 
three test tubes. After shaking, haemolytic action is shown by a clearing 
of the red, turbid fluids. The experiment can now be repeated by adding 
to similar contents cholesterin about one-fifth of the saponin weight dis¬ 
solved in ether ; the tubes are again shaken, and allowed to stand for a 
few hours at 36° ; if saponin is present there is no longer any clearing, 
for cholesterin inhibits or destroys the haemolytic action. 
§ 582. Identification of Saponin. —An amorphous white powder, 
very soluble in water, insoluble in cold alcohol or ether, having gluco- 
sidal reactions, striking a red colour with sulphuric acid, imparting a 
soap-like condition to water, dissolving the red corpuscles of the blood, 
and poisonous to animals, is most probably a saponin. 
DIVISION III.—VARIOUS VEGETABLE POISONOUS PRINCIPLES 
NOT READILY ADMITTING OF CLASSIFICATION IN THE 
PREVIOUS DIVISION. 
I.—Santonin. 
§ 583. Santonin (C 15 H 18 0 3 ) is a lactone extracted from the un¬ 
expanded heads of various species of Artemisia (Nat. Ord. Compositce). 
The seeds contain, according to Dragendorff, 2-03 to 2-13 per cent, of 
santonin, and about 2-25 per cent, of volatile oil, with 3 per cent, of fat 
and resin. Santonin forms brilliant, white, four-sided, flat prisms, in 
taste feebly bitter, m.p. 170°. Santonin in a concentration of 2 per 
cent, in 80 per cent, alcohol turns the plane of polarised light to the 
left, [a] D , at 15°=—176-5°; in chloroform, —171*5°. Santonin dis- 
