NEW  CRYSTALLINE  BODY  FROM   HELLEBORUS  NIGER. 
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ON  A  NEW  CRYSTALLINE  BODY  FROM  HELLEBORUS  NIGER. 
By  William  Bastick. 
{Read  before  the  'Pharmaceutical  Society.') 
The  natural  order  Ranunculacece  contains  a  number  of  plants  of 
great  activity  on  the'  animal  economy,  and  most  of  these  employed 
as  medicinal  agents  have  been  thoroughly  examined  by  chemists, 
by  whom  their  active  principles  have  been  separated  beyond  doubt. 
It  has  been  found,  as  is  well  known,  that  these  active  principles 
are  organic  bases  of  extreme  virulence,  and  possess  the  properties 
of  the  plants  from  which  they  are  derived  in  a  highly  concentrated 
form.  Black  hellebore  root  has  been  several  times  examined  for 
the  purpose  of  ascertaining  what  were  its  active  constituents,  and 
more  especially  to  learn  whether,  like  other  members  of  this  family, 
it  contained  an  organic  base.  Vauquelin  ascribed  its  activity  to 
the  presence  of  an  acrid  oil,  and  Gmelin  to  a  soft  resin  which 
exists  in  it.  The  most  recent  and  complete  examination  of  black 
hellebore  root  is  that  of  MM.  Feneulle  and  Capron,  whose  re- 
searches were  principally  directed  to  prove  the  absence  or  presence 
of  an  alkaloid  in  this  root.  However,  they  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  no  such  body  existed  in  it,  and  that  its  activity  was  due  to  a 
combination  of  a  fatty  oil  with  a  volatile  acid,  which  they  separated 
from  it.  Doubting  the  truth  of  their  conclusions,  and  reasoning 
from  analogy,  I  was  led  to  believe  that,  by  the  improved  methods 
of  research  of  the  present  day,  an  organic  base  might  be  extracted 
from  it.  I  therefore  adopted  a  method  which  experience  has  shown 
will  eliminate  an  alkaloid  from  any  substance,  if  any  such  alkaloid, 
soluble  in  ether,  exist  therein,  and  which  is  as  follows  : — 
The  black  hellebore  root  was  finely  bruised,  and  macerated  with 
alcohol,  containing  l-50th  part  of  strong  sulphuric  acid.  After 
three  days,  the  tincture  was  filtered  from  the  root,  and  supersaturated 
with  calcined  magnesia.  The  liquid  was  then  filtered,  and  sufficient 
sulphuric  acid  added  to  it  to  render  it  slightly  acid.  It  was  again 
filtered,  to  remove  the  sulphate  of  magnesia  formed.  The  filtrate 
was  now  mixed  with  twice  its  volume  of  distilled  water,  and  the 
mixture  evaporated,  to  expel  the  alcohol,  and  to  reduce  consider- 
ably the  bulk  of  the  solution.  To  remove  the  soft  resin,  which 
was  separated  by  replacing  the  alcoholic  menstruum  with  water, 
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