AN  ALKALOID  FROM  SEEDS  OF  RICINUS  COMMUNIS.  423 
stated  to  be  the  organic  constituents  of  tobacco  seed,  viz. :  a 
fixed  drying  oil,  protein-like  substance,  resin,  sugar,  gum,  tan- 
nic, and  oxalic  acids.  No  less  than  200,000  seeds  were  calcu- 
lated to  have  been  produced  by  a  single  plant. —  Viertiljh.  Ph. 
xiii.  161. 
The  musty  smell  which  grain  harvested  in  damp  weather 
acquires,  has  been  removed  by  Chalambel,  by  exposing  it  in 
the  granaries  to  the  drying  influence  of  quicklime,  (which 
however  should  be  allowed  to  come  in  contact  with  it,)  in  the 
proportion  of  one  part  lime  to  fifty  of  grain. — Zeitseh.  f.  deut. 
Lander.    N.  Jahrb.  Ph.  xxi.  42. 
NOTE  ON  AN  ALKALOID  OBTAINED  FROM  THE  SEEDS  OF 
RICINUS  COMMUNIS,  OR  CASTOR-OIL  PLANT. 
By  Professor  Tuson. 
It  is  well  known  that  certain  parts  of  several  plants  belong- 
ing to  the  Natural  Order  Euphorbiacece,  as  well  as  various 
pharmaceutical  preparations  obtained  therefrom,  have  been  long 
employed  in  medicine  as  remedial  agents ;  and  that,  notwith- 
standing this  circumstance,  our  knowledge  respecting  the  chem- 
ical constitution  and  physiological  action  of  the  active  principles 
residing  in  such  bodies  is  even  at  the  present  day  in  an  exceed- 
ingly unsatisfactory  state. 
For  a  considerable  period  I  have  devoted  much  of  the  time 
which  I  could  snatch  from  that  occupied  in  my  regular  profes- 
sional pursuits  to  attempts  at  isolating  the  active  constituents 
of  the  seeds  and  oils  of  castor  and  croton,  of  gum  euphorbium, 
and  of  cascarilla  bark,  i.  e.  the  bark  of  Croton  eleuteria  or  of 
Croton  cascarilla.  Now  although,  as  yet,  I  have  not  succeeded 
in  accomplishing  the  particular  object  which  I  had  in  view  when 
I  commenced  my  experiments,  I  have  nevertheless  discovered 
several  substances  possessing  chemical  if  not  therapeutic  in- 
terest, and  it  is  one  of  these  proximate  principles  which  I  have 
separated  from  the  seeds  and  oil  of  Ricinus  communis  that  I 
wish  to  partly  describe  in  this  communication.  The  compound 
to  which  I  refer  is  an  alkaloid,  and  I  have  provisionally  named 
it  ricinine. 
