178  Distinction  of  the  Cinchona  Alkaloids.  {^^Sg^- 
ON  the  DISTINCTION  of  the  CINCHONA  ALKALOIDS.1 
By  Dr.  Richard  Godeffroy  and  C.  Ledermann. 
The  price -currents  of  different  German  drug  houses  frequently  quote 
several  cinchona  alkaloids  under  very  different  and  often  arbitrary 
names,  which  occasionally  are  well  adapted  to  cause  confusion  or  mis- 
takes. Thus  we  find  quinidia  (or  conchinin)  sulphate  quoted  as  chini- 
num  sulfuricum  Bi,  or  B,  or  b,  or  /?,  or  as  chinidinum  sulfuricum 
purum  verum,  etc.,  and  sulphate  of  cinchonidia  as  chininum  sulfuricum 
B  or  Bii,  chinidinum  sulfuricum,  or  I  ma,  etc.2  To  distinguish  the 
various  cinchona  alkaloids  from  each  other  appears  to  be  the  more 
important  since  quinia  sulphate  commands  a  high  price  in  the  market, 
and  an  adulteration  or  substitution  of  it  with  the  cheaper  sulphates  of 
cinchonidia  and  quinidia  is  not  impossible. 
The  microscope  alone  enables  us  to  test  the  purity  of  quinia  sulphate 
quickly  and  accurately.  Stoddart  and  F.  Schrage  have  published  some 
interesting  information  in  this  direction  ;  but,  since  they  have  confined 
their  researches  only  to  quinia,  cinchonia  and  quinidia,  and  since  it  is 
uncertain  whether  the  latter  term  was  intended  for  conchinia  (quinidia) 
or  cinchonidia,  the  authors  deemed  further  researches  advisable,  and 
observed  that  F.  Schrage  must  have  made  some  statements  partly 
incomplete  and  partly  incorrect. 
The  method  of  microscopic  examination  by  Stoddart  and  Schrage  is 
based  upon  the  characteristic  reactions  of  the  cinchona  alkaloids  with 
potassium  sulphocyanide.  For  the  success  of  the  reaction  there  are 
required  a  concentrated  solution  of  the  potassium  salt  and  a  solution  of 
the  salt  of  cinchona  alkaloid,  saturated  at  the  temperature  existing  at 
the  time  of  the  examination.  For  salts  which  are  difficultly  soluble, 
Schrage  recommends  a  solution  saturated  at  a  temperature  io°C.  higher 
than  that  of  the  atmosphere.  According  to  the  authors  this  is  wrong, 
since  in  the  manner  stated  microscopic  pictures  are  obtained  which  are 
at  variance  with  the  appearance  of  the  reaction.  The  preparations  used 
by  them  were  the  pure  sulphates  of  the  four  alkaloids  manufactured 
1  Translated  and  abridged  from  "Archiv  der  Pharmacie,"  Dec,  1877. 
2  This  confusion  in  the  nomenclature  of  the  cinchona  alkaloids  is  unknown  in  the 
United  States,  where  the  nomenclature,  as  corrected  by  Pasteur's  researches  in  1853, 
has  been  generally  adopted,  and^where,  therefore,  no  excuse  existed  for  the  intro- 
duction of  the  term  conchinin  for  quinidia,  as  proposed  by  Hesse  in  1869,  and  now 
beginning  to  be  employed  in  Germany. — Editor  Am.  Jour.  Phar. 
