COMPOSITION OF IPECACUANHA ROOT. 
353 
Starch and Pectin. — If the triturated root be boiled with water, 
a brownish gelatinous liquid, having an unpleasant smell, is 
obtained. If this be strained through coarse linen, to remove the 
woody fibres, then diluted with a large quantity of water, and fil- 
tered through paper, a mucilaginous greyish substance remains on 
the filter, and, by drying, becomes hard, brittle and blackish-brown. 
When boiled with water, this substance yields a slightly yellow 
liquid, in which the presence of starch can easily be proved ; if, 
however, ammonia be added to the boiling water, the liquid be- 
comes dark-colored, and, upon the addition of diluted muriatic acid, 
gelatinous flocculi appear in it, which possess all the properties of 
pectic acid. 
Gum and phosphatic salts. — The filtered liquid contains, besides 
emetin, and a few salts, a considerable quantity of gum. The 
liquid having been mixed with an aqueous solution of sugar of 
lead, let fall a brownish precipitate, which consisted, for the most 
part, of phosphate of lead, and the liquid filtered from this precipi- 
tate, yielded, when treated with the tribasic acetate of lead, a 
second precipitate, which was exhausted with water, and decom- 
posed under water by sulphuretted hydrogen. The liquid filtered 
from the sulphuret of lead, was then evaporated to half its volume, 
and mixed with an excess of alcohol of 98 per cent., when a white 
substance precipitated, and was separated by filtration, washed 
and dried at 100° Cent. 
This substance readily dissolved in w 7 ater, and yielded, when 
boiled with diluted muriatic acid, grape sugar; when burnt, an 
incombustible residue remained behind, amounting to 1.14 per 
cent. The analysis showed 44.45 per cent, carbon, and 6.31 per 
cent, hydrogen, which corresponds to C l2 H O , the formula of 
gum. In the alcoholic liquid filtered from the gum, the peculiar 
acid of ipecacuanha is contained. The liquid filtered from the 
precipitate produced by the tribasic acetate of lead, yielded, when 
treated w 7 ith strong alcohol, a gummate of lead of a white color, 
which, being decomposed by sulphuretted hydrogen, filtered from 
the sulphuret of lead, and evaporated, yielded the largest quantity 
•of gum. In the last mother-liquors, the emetin was contained. 
Ipecacuanha acid, C 14 H 8 6 . The powdered root was boiled 
with alcohol of 0.840, the filtered liquid treated with tribasic act- 
ate of lead, the precipitate washed with alcohol of 0.830, and dis- 
28* 
