614 
Alkaloids  from  Niix  Vomica. 
(  Am.  Jour.  Pliarm^ 
t       Dec,  1881. 
water,  but  with  one  exception  the  products  are  amorphous,  resin- 
like bodies,  from  which  unaltered  brucine  is  easily  separated  in  a  pure 
state.  T  have  little  doubt,  however,  that  the  ordinary  processes 
are  very  wasteful,  from  the  following  facts :  From  56  lbs.  of  nux 
vomica  seeds  in  the  above  operations  I  obtained  in  all  a  little 
more  than  20  oz.  of  mixed  crystalline,  though  not  perfectly  pure 
alkaloids,  an  amount  corresponding  to  above  2J  per  cent.  The 
recorded  proportions  of  brucine  and  strychnine,  taking  the  improbable 
event  of  both  being  at  their  maximum,  is  1'5  per  cent,  in  all  ("  Phar- 
macographia ''),  so  that  my  yield  was  certainly  some  33  per  cent,  above 
that  previously  recorded,  and  perhaps  exceeded  it  still  more.  On  the 
other  hand  it  is  questionable  whether  the  troublesome  nature  of  my 
process  would  not  take  from  it  any  advantage  it  may  possess  when 
applied  on  a  large  scale. 
3.  Igasurine.  —  The  work  detailed  in  the  preceding  pages  give 
account  of  the  portion  of  alkaloid  precipitated  by  alkalies  from  the 
original  solution  in  dilute  acid,  and  of  those  portions  of  that  which 
remained  in  the  alkaline  liquid,  which,  after  separating  strychnia^, 
either  crystallized  on  evaporation  of  the  alcoholic  solution,  or  were 
extracted  afterwards  from  the  mother-liquor  of  the  crystallized  por- 
tions by  chloroform.  It  will  be  observed,  on  examining  the  results 
of  analyses  quoted  on  page  ()13,  that  these  fail  to  give  any  indi- 
cation of  the  presence  of  anything  among  them  having  a  compo- 
sition different  from  that  of  brucine.  There  remains,  however,  for 
consideration  the  contents  of  the  mother-liquor,  from  which  every- 
thing that  chloroform  would  extract  had  been  removed.  This  liquid 
gave  on  slow  evaporation  good-sized  brown  crystals,  of  a  substance 
which,  from  its  apparently  definite  character,  puzzled  me  a  good 
deal  for  a  time.  It  appears  to  be  very  similar  to  a  substance  which,, 
for  the  sake  of  distinction,  I  called  a  "  new  brucine  salt,''  in  a  slight 
notice  of  a  very  small  quantity  of  it  obtained  a  few  years  ago  Pharm. 
Jour.,"  Dec,  1877). 
It  forms  in  good-sized  crystals  from  impure  solutions,  but  I  have 
failed  to  get  them  so  large  after  recrystallizing ;  as  it  is  freely  soluble  in 
warm  water  and  alcohol,  and  less  so  in  the  cold,  it  can  be  easily  purified 
by  recrystallizing,  when  it  has  a  pale  straw  color,  which  is  not  removed 
by  further  similar  treatment;  addition  of  alkalies  to  the  aqueous 
solution  gives  a  white  precipitate ;  the  substance  is  strongly  red- 
