CHEMICAL HISTORY OF GENTIAN ROOT. 
333 
ART. LV.— FACTS TO SERVE AS A CHEMICAL HISTORY 
OF GENTIAN ROOT. By M. Claude Leconte, Paris. 
Gentian, ( Gentiana lutea, L.J called also yellow gen- 
tian, and great gentian, belongs to the dicotyledonous, mono- 
petalous, hypogynous plants of Jussieu, to the vascular, exo- 
gynous corolliflowered, plants of Decandolle, and to the class 
Pentandria, order Digynia, of Linnaeus. According to Dios- 
corides and Pliny, the name of this plant is derived from that 
of Gentis, or Gentius, King of Illyria, who appears to have 
recommended its root for certain epidemic diseases. 
This root being one of the most noted remedies of our in- 
digenous materia medica, at an early period attracted the 
attention of chemists; yet, it must be said, the data which 
science has bestowed, as to the nature of its constituent prin- 
ciples, are far from being complete. 
In the year 1819, when MM. Pelletier & Caventou made 
their fortunate investigation of the barks, and discovered 
quinia, which has since been of so much consequence in the- 
rapeutics, M. Henry endeavoured to isolate the active bitter 
principle of gentian. This skilful operator, having exhausted 
the power of solvents upon this root, successively separated 
from it, by ether, an oily substance, possessing odour and 
bitterness, united with another glutinous substance less bitter, 
which he compares to glue; by alcohol, a very bitter extrac- 
tive substance, soluble in water, which he has considered as 
containing the sole active principle; by water, an insipid 
mucoso-gummy matter.* About the same time, MM. Guil- 
lemin & Foecquemin addressed to the Journal de Phar- 
macie, a paper upon the same subject. It results from their 
♦ M. Fee, in his Cours d'Histoire Naturelle Pharmaceutique, in addition 
to the principles stated by M. Henry, enumerates silica, alumina, magnesia, 
and iron, in accordance with the researches of MM. Guillemin & Foecque- 
min. M. Henry has not given, as asserted by M. Fee, the name of gentianin 
to his bitter extract, this product not being the same as the gentianin of 
MM. Henry & Caventou. 
VOL. III. — NO. IV. 42 
