THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
OCTOBER,  1887. 
ANALYSIS  OF  ARISTOLOCHIA  RETICULATA,  NuttalL 
By  James  Adams  Ferguson,  Ph.  G. 
[Abstract  from  a  thesis.] 
The  drug  was  reduced  to  a  number  eighty  powder.  The  moisture 
present  was  determined  to  be  10*70  per  cent.,  and  the  inorganic  con- 
stituents 11 '40  per  cent.;  the  ash  contained  carbonic,  phosphoric  and 
sulphuric  acids,  yielded  to  water  1*85  potassium  salts,  and  to  hydro>- 
chloric  acid  3*35  salts  of  calcium,  magnesium  and  iron,  the  undissolved^ 
6*20,  being  silica. 
The  extract  obtained  with  petroleum  spirit  (boiling  point  45°C.,) 
lost  on  heating  to  105°C.  one  per  cent,  of  volatile  oil ;  the  residue  left 
was  soft,  resinous,  fused  at  66°C,  was  soluble  in  chloroform  and  ben- 
zol, and  partly  soluble  in  absolute  alcohol. 
The  ether  extract  was  soft,  greenish-brown,  resinous,  slightly  bitten, 
of  an  agreeable  odor;  spec.  grav.  1*10;  melting  point  66  °C. ;  solubles 
in  absolute  alcohol,  chloroform  and  benzol ;  imparting  to  water  am 
acid  reaction ;  colored  red-brown  by  H2S04,  and  yellow-brown  by 
HN03. 
The  extract  with  absolute  alcohol,  yielded  to  water  nearly  one  half 
its  weight  ("85  per  cent,  of  the  drug),  of  soluble  matter,  the  solution 
contained  tannin,  and  gave  precipitates  with  platinic  chloride,  phospho- 
molybclic  acid,  auric  chloride  and  potassio-mercuric  iodide.  The  tan- 
nin was  determined  in  a  fresh  portion  of  the  drug,  by  weighing  the 
gelatin  precipitate,  occasioned  in  a  decoction,  in  the  presence  of  aluuu 
The  portion  of  the  alcohol  extract  insoluble  in  water  was  weighed  as-, 
phlobaphene. 
The  water  extract,  after  deducting  the  ash  (2'20  per  cent.),  weighed! 
8*00  per  cent.;  gum  and  dextrin  were  removed  by  successive  precipita- 
tion with  alcohol ;  malic  acid  was  determined  by  precipitation  with 
lead  acetate,  decomposition  by  H2S,  and  precipitation  with  calcium- 
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