Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
May,  1877.  J 
On  Ostruthin. 
247 
ON  OSTRUTHIN. 
By  E.  von  Gorup-Besanez. 
This  body  was  discovered  by  the  author  in  1874  (see  Proceedings 
American  Pharmaceutical  Association,  1875,  p.  453),  in  the  root  of 
Imperatoria  ostruthium.  The  following  is  an  outline  of  the  process 
by  which  the  largest  yield  has  been  obtained  : 
The  young  roots  of  masterwort,  1  to  2  years  old,  are  cut  and 
digested  with  90  per  cent,  alcohol  at  50  to  6o°C.  until  the  liquid  ceases 
to  become  colored  ;  the  mixed  tinctures  are  distilled  to  one-third,  and 
this  then  evaporated  until  on  cooling  a  thick  liquid  remains.  This 
residue  is  exhausted  by  a  mixture  of  three  parts  of  ether  and  one  of 
ligroin,  of  low  boiling  point,  until  a  firm  plaster-like  mass  remains. 
The  solution  is  mixed  with  more  ligroin,  which  separates  a  brown 
sticky  mass,  and  the  decanted  liquor  is  evaporated  spontaneously  from 
flat  dishes,  and  if  necessary  decanted  from  the  oily  sediment  forming. 
Yellow  crystals  are  afterwards  deposited,  which  are  freed  from  adher- 
ing resinous  matter  by  spreading  them  upon  porous  plaster  tiles.  The 
crystals  are  then  dissolved  in  ether,  the  solution  again  mixed  with  some 
ligroin,  freed  from  the  deposited  oily  matter,  and  evaporated  spon- 
taneously. Repeated  recrystallization  from  ether  yields  larger  but  still 
yellow  crystals,  which  are  obtained  white  by  dissolving  them  in  alcohol 
and  adding  water  until  a  permanent  precipitate  begins  to  appear. 
Ostruthin  crystallizes  from  ether  in  the  triclinic  system,  the  crystals 
resembling  rhombohedrons.  It  fuses  at  H5°C.  and  congeals  at  9I°C. 
to  a  wax-like  mass,  becoming  crystalline  ;  is  inodorous,  tasteless,  burns 
with  bright  smoky  flame,  and  yields  by  dry  destination  a  thick  yellow- 
ish oil,  with  an  odor  resembling  Canada  balsam.  It  is  insoluble  in 
cold  water,  sparingly  soluble  in  benzol  and  petroleum  benzin  and  freely 
soluble  in  alcohol  and  ether.  The  alcoholie  solution  has  a  faint  blue 
fluorescence,  which  becomes  magnificently  blue  on  the  addition  of 
water  ;  more  water  precipitates  it.  All  its  solutions  are  neutral  and 
optically  inactive.    Its  composition  is  C14H1702. 
Ostruthin  hydrochlorate,  C14H1702HC1,  is  obtained  by  passing 
muriatic  acid  gas  into  a  not  very  dilute  alcoholic  solution  of  ostruthin, 
which  congeals  ;  the  mass  is  then  washed  with  water  and  crystallized 
from  ether.  It  forms  white,  tasteless  and  inodorous  needles,  soluble 
in  alcohol,  ether,  benzol  and  chloroform,  less  in  petroleum  benzin. 
