354 
COMPOSITION OF IPECACUANHA ROOT. 
solved in diluted acetic acid, by which the phosphate of lead 
remains behind. 
The acetic solution was mixed with the tribasic acetate of lead, 
the precipitate collected on the filter, and the filtered liquid decom- 
posed by a small quantity of ammonia, by which a precipitate was 
obtained. Both precipitates were separately washed with alcohol 
of 98 per cent., mixed with ether, decomposed by sulphuretted 
hydrogen, and filtered from the sulphuret of lead. 
The first precipitate gave a light yellow liquid. This was 
evaporated in the water-bath in a current of dry carbonic acid, till 
the ether had escaped. The residue was then mixed with water, 
filtered, in order to remove some fat, and digested with animal 
charcoal, and the reddish-brown liquid, filtered from the charcoal, 
and evaporated to dryness in the water-bath, in a current of car- 
bonic acid. The residue, dried at 100° C, is the hydrate of the 
ipecacuanha acid. The second precipitate was treated like the 
first, and the analysis of the acid obtained from it, gave almost the 
same results. 
Properties of Ipecacuanha acid. — This acid forms a reddish- 
brown substance, of a strong bitter taste; it is highly hygroscopic, 
soluble in ether, and more so in alcohol and water. The diluted 
watery solution yields with sugar of lead no precipitate; tribasic 
acetate of lead produces a brownish-white precipitate, which 
readily imbibes oxygen from the atmosphere, becoming at the 
same time darker colored. It also becomes darker colored by loss 
of water, and by drying under exclusion of the oxygen of the air. 
A solution of a persalt of iron (chloride of iron) is colored 
green, even by a very diluted solution of the pure acid ; ammonia 
produces a violet color, by an excess of ammonia the liquid be- 
comes black like ink, and a blackish brown-sediment is formed in 
it. The salts of silver and mercury are reduced by the acid. 
The cupreous salts produce no precipitate with the acid, but on 
the addition of ammonia, a dirty, greenish-brown precipitate is 
produced. If a solution of the pure acid, mixed with alkalies, be 
exposed to the atmosphere, a dark, blackish-brown coloration, 
with absorption of oxygen, is very soon perceptible. This tendency' 
to absorb oxygen, although in slighter degree, belongs to the pure 
acid, as well as to its salts. When heated, the acid fuses, and 
evolves a penetrating odor of formic acid, and leaves behind a 
vesicular coal, which is burnt with difficulty. 
