452 
ARNICA  MONTANA. 
no  nitrogen  ;  dried  at  212^  F.  Three  analyses  gave  the  follow- 
ing results  : 
Calculation.  Analysis. 
70  C.      71-60  71-52 
54  H.        9-20  9.23 
14  0.       19-20  19-25 
The  author  supposes  arnicine  to  be  a  glucoside,  and  remarks 
that  the  analyses  likewise  agree  very  nearly  with  the  formula 
C^gHggO-^^j.  Boiling  with  acids  appears  to  yield  several  second- 
ary products  of  decomposition. 
Oil  of  Arnica. — The  flowers  contain  little  volatile  oil  of  a 
yellow  color,  not  blue  as  asserted  by  Martins. 
Analysis  of  the  flowers, — 120  ib.  of  flowers  several  years  old, 
were  exhausted  with  boiling  water,  the  infusion  precipitated 
first  with  subacetate  of  lead,  and  after  removing  the  lead,  with 
tannin.  The  latter  precipitate  was  exhausted  with  alcohol,  the 
tannin  removed  by  oxide  of  lead,  and  the  crystals  separating  on 
cooling,  freed  from  the  solution  by  filtering  and  washing  with 
water  ;  they  were  identical  with  the  above  oil.  After  distilling 
off  part  of  the  alcohol,  the  above  mentioned  wax  crystallized,  and 
the  mother  liquor  now  yielded  with  water  a  turbidity,  and  floc- 
cules  of  arnicine.  The  filtrate  therefrom  still  had  an  acrid  and 
very  bitter  taste ;  it  was  evaporated  and  treated  with  absolute 
alcohol,  which  left  a  tasteless  mass.  This  tincture  was  decolor- 
ized by  animal  charcoal,  the  alcohol  distilled  off,  and  the  dry 
residue  digested  with  ether.  On  evaporating  the  ether  spon- 
taneously, a  yellowish,  oily  mass,  of  a  bitter,  acrid  taste,  was 
left  intermixed  with  oblique  rhombic  prisms  of  acetate  of  soda. 
On  dissolving  in  alcohol,  some  scales  of  the  fat  and  wax  were 
left ;  the  solution  was  precipitated  by  water,  leaving  the  acetate 
of  soda  in  solution.  After  having  distilled  off  the  alcohol,  tan- 
nin precipitates  more  arnicine,  which  is  obtained  pure  by  diges- 
tion with  oxide  of  lead  and  subsequent  spontaneous  evaporation. 
For  preparing  arnicine,  Professor  Walz  recommends,  besides 
the  process  just  mentioned,  the  following  : 
1.  The  flowers  are  exhausted  with  ether,  this  distilled  off,  and 
the  residue  treated  with  alcohol  of  -850  spec,  grav.,  which  dis- 
solves arnicine  with  little  fat,  to  be  purified  by  animal  charcoal, 
and  repeated  solution  in  weak  alcohol. 
