AmFSrx878harm"}         The  Saponin  of  Sars  afar  ilia.  8  5 
to  Professor  Fliickiger  to  carry  on  the  investigation.  Professor  Fliick- 
iger  suggests  that,  in  order  to  facilitate  a  comparison  of  the  nearly 
allied,  if  not  identical,  substances,  saponin  and  parillin,  a  more  exact 
investigation  of  the  former,  prepared  from  cheaper  materials,  should 
be  undertaken  by  others,  he  himself  dealing  with  the  sarsaparilla 
"saponin"  or  parillin. 
The  following  method  of  preparation  is  recommended  as  preferable 
to  that  given  in  "  Pharmacographia."  The  chopped  and  bruised  sarsa- 
parilla root  is  heated  at  least  twice  with  alcohol  of  about  0*835  sp.  gr.^ 
the  liquid  poured  off  and  the  marc  pressed,  and  the  product  distilled 
until  the  residue  in  the  retort  equals  one  sixth,  or  rather  less,  of  the 
weight  of  root  used.  The  liquid,  which  is  strongly  colored,  but  not 
particularly  thick,  is  diluted  gradually  with  one  and  a  half  times  its- 
weight  of  water,  which  causes  the  formation  ot  a  light  yellowish  loamy 
precipitate  of  crude  parillin.  The  liquor  is  allowed  to  stand  some 
days  in  the  cold,  after  which  the  very  dark  brown  clear  liquor  can  be 
decanted  off.  With  the  deposit  is  then  mixed  about  half  its  volume 
of  alcohol,  the  mixture  is  filtered,  and  the  precipitate  washed 
with  very  dilute  spirit,  containing  about  twenty  to  thirty  per  cent, 
by  weight  of  alcohol.  This  operation  depends  upon  parillin  being 
less  soluble  in  dilute  spirit  than  in  ordinary  alcohol  or  in  water, 
it  being  precipitated  from  an  alcoholic  solution  by  the  addition  of  water, 
or  from  an  aqueous  solution  by  the  addition  of  spirit.  In  alcohol  of 
sp.  gr.  0*835  it  is  freely  soluble.  Although  freely  soluble  in  boiling 
water,  and  very  slightly  soluble  in  cold  water,  it  crystallizes  best  from 
alcohol.  Prepared  in  this  way,  after  treatment  with  animal  charcoal, 
the  parillin  is  obtained  pure  white,  either  in  thin  scales  or  prisms, 
showing  a  double  refraction  in  polarized  light. 
In  several  experiments  with  different  kinds  of  sarsaparilla,  working 
with  about  4  kilograms  of  root,  the  author  obtained  about  0*18  to  O'lg 
per  cent,  of  pure  white  crystallized  parillin.  Some  more  parillin  can 
be  obtained  by  concentrating  the  mother-liquor  and  precipitating  with 
a  little  water,  or  boiling  it  with  alcohol.  This  second  yield,  however, 
is  less  readily  purified,  it  becoming  mixed  with  sodium  chloride,  which 
occurs  plentifully  in  all  aqueous  extracts  of  sarsaparilla.  The  author 
failed  to  obtain  parillin  from  the  root  stock  of  Smilax  aspera  or  from 
China  root,  but  the  quantity  operated  on  was  small.  Marquis  reports 
("Archiv  d.  Pharm.,"  ccvi,  342)  that  he  obtained  1*75  per  cent,  from 
sarsaparilla,  5*12  per  cent,  from  Smilax  aspera,  and  over  o*6o  per  cent, 
from  China  root. 
Air-dried  parillin  contains  water  of  crystallization,  which  it  loses  at 
I00°C.  ;  but  different  experiments  gave  results  varying  from  6  to  12 
per  cent.  At  about  1400  it  cakes  together,  melts  with  partial  decom- 
position at  about  2100,  and  acquires  a  strong  brown  color  by  further 
heating.    Melted  parillin  readily  takes  fire,  and  burns  quietly  after  the 
6 
