450 
ARNICA  MONTANA. 
throwing  it  awaj  when  from  any  cause  it  had  become  deterio- 
rated. — Dublin  Med.  Press,  Dee.  4,1860,  from  London  Pharm. 
Journ.  Jan.  1861. 
ON  ARNICA  MONTANA,  Linn. 
By  G.  F.  Walz. 
After  stating  the  importance  of  arnica  as  a  medicine,  the 
author  mentions  the  results  of  the  investigations  of  the  flowers 
by  Weber,  Martini,  Gressler,  Chevallier  and  Lassaigne,  Thom- 
son, Versmann,  Bastick  and  Lebourdais,  and  the  analyses  of  the 
root  by  PfafF  and  Weissenburger ;  the  herb  has  never  been 
carefully  analyzed.  Having  100  ib.  of  the  latter  at  his  disposal, 
the  author  examined  first  for  volatile  oil,  but  obtained  merely 
an  oily  film.  The  whole  quantity  of  herb  was  exhausted  with 
boiling  water.  The  brown  infusion  has  a  slight  acid  reaction,  is 
darkened  by  alkalies,  and  precipitated  green  by  ferric  salts, 
and  yellow  by  salts  of  lead  and  other  metals. 
The  infusion  was  precipitated  by  subacetate  of  lead,  from  the 
clear  nearly  colorless  filtrate,  the  lead  removed  by  carbonate  of 
soda,  and  the  decanted  liquid  precipitated  by  tannin.  The  pre- 
cipitate is  soluble  in  water ;  it  was  washed  with  little  water, 
pressed,  dried  and  treated  with  alcohol.  The  tannin  was  re- 
moved from  the  tincture  by  litharge,  decolorized  by  animal 
charcoal,  distilled,  and  the  residue  set  aside.  After  several 
weeks,  white  felt-like  crystals,  sparingly  soluble  in  alcohol  and 
entirely  tasteless,  were  separated  together  with  some  fat,  which 
crystallized  from  hot  alcohol  at  ]  2  to  15°  C,  (59*^  F.)  in  feathery, 
silky  needles,  drying  to  a  fragile  mass  of  faint,  fatty  odor,  and 
fusing  between  25  and  30°  C.  (77  and  86^  F.)  The  above 
crystals  were  likewise  obtained  from  the  root  and  flowers,  and 
will  be  noticed  hereafter. 
From  the  mother  liquor,  which  possessed  the  acrid  and  bitter 
taste  of  the  herb,  no  crystals  separated  on  further  evaporation, 
but  water  precipitated  white  floccules,  gradually  becoming  a  yel- 
lowish oily  mass.  The  liquid  was  not  precipitated  by  alkalies, 
but  acids  threw  down  a  white  oily  mass ;  the  same  body  was 
dissolved  from  the  liquid  by  ether,  from  which  it  separated  on 
