Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ) 
January,  1902.  J 
Cifichona  Bark. 
29 
Contact  with  lime  for  an  hour  makes  no  difference  in  the  quan- 
titative results. 
Neither  does  more  water  added  to  the  slack  lime  (more  than  the 
mixture  becomes  through  the  use  of  ammonia  water)  make  a 
difference. 
But  the  quantitative  results  were  alike  to  the  previously  obtained^ 
when  No.  80  powder  was  used. 
In  other  words,  the  fineness  of  the  powder  is  of  the  utmost 
importance  for  success  with  the  lime-aether  method.  Results,  65 
and  6:48  per  cent.  Strange  to  notice,  this  failed  by  the  richer  bark. 
Lime  and  aether  extracted  only : 
In  30  minutes  .... 
In  one  hour  
In  an  hour  and  a  half 
The  well  known  process  of  shaking  out  in  the  cold  in  an  auto- 
matic shaker  (as  was  recommended  in  the  Pharm.  Journal  for 
March,  1892)  yielded  from  the  bark  containing  9-3  per  cent,  total 
alkaloid,  after  three  hours'  shaking;  9-22,  9-24  and  9-19  per  cent., 
and  from  a  bark  found  to  contain  8-24  total  alkaloid  after  an  hour 
boiling  8  31  per  cent. 
Where  the  care  for  safety  in  boiling  with  aether  requires  too  many 
precautions,  this  shaking  method  has  a  right  of  existence.  (Com- 
pare  Lyons'  "  Manual,"  1899,  page  114,  No.  203.)  Referent 
obtained  very  good  results  from  the  shaking,  automatically,  in  the 
cold,  from  a  mixture  of  chloroform,  petroleum-aether  and  ammonia, 
but  it  takes  longer  time  and  requires  "  machinery  "  of  some  kind. 
In  a  shaking  apparatus  one  can  have,  however,  half  a  dozen  or 
more  samples  at  the  same  time  in  operation.  Each  method  has 
therefore  its  own  merits;  Van  Ketel's  is  certainly  the  cheapest, 
using  only  common  apparatus. 
But  the  unusual  large  quantities  of  ethylic  aether  (unusual  and 
not  needed  in  our  assay  work)  stand,  in  my  opinion,  in  the  way  for  a 
general  adoption  of  Mr.  Van  Ketel's  process.  The  author  employs 
about  300  (three  hundred)  c.c.  Filtering  aether  and  washing 
with  aether  are  also  not  recommendable  features.  Referent  did  not 
find  it  necessary  to  filter.    The  heavy  mixture  of  bark  and  lime 
Per  Cent. 
774 
778 
/8-25 
18-22 
J  8'25 
18-26 
