Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ) 
Sept.,  1877.  ; 
Colchicum  Seed. 
435 
1st  grade 
2d  grade 
3d  grade 
Very  old 
Mayer's  solution  necessary  to  precipi- 
or white  root. 
or  gray  root. 
or  black  root. 
root. 
tate  1  cc.  of  the  solution, 
•0403 
•0414 
•0492 
•0300 
Percentage  of  alkaloid  in  air-dry  root, 
•205 
'210 
•219 
•152 
Tannate  precipitate  obtained  from  five 
troyounces  of  root, 
•320 
•265 
•270 
Amount  of  crude  colchicia  obtained 
from  the  tannates,  .... 
lost. 
•115 
•104 
By  the  above  table  it  will  be  seen  that  the  results  obtained  with 
tannin  and  by  Mayer's  solution  do  not  agree  as  to  the  amount  of  col- 
chicia indicated.  This  may  be  due  to  the  slight  solubility  in  water  of 
the  tannate  of  colchicia,  as  noticed  by  Hubler  and  others,  and  to  the 
varying  amount  of  water  used  in  the  last  experiments.  But  the  results 
seem  to  indicate  that  it  apparently  matters  little  whether  the  root  has  a 
white,  gray  or  black  color,  but  that  the  age  is  of  primary  importance, 
and  none  but  a  fresh-looking  root  should  be  purchased  ;  if  this  is  done 
I  think  no  fault  can  be  found  as  to  the  quality  of  the  preparations 
made  from  it. 
COLCHICUM  SEED. 
By  Nathan  Rosenwasser,  Ph.G. 
[From  an  Inaugural  Essay. 
The  author  prepared  the  active  principle  of  the  seed,  and  found  it 
to  have  a  neutral  reaction  to  test  paper,  and  to  be  not  precipitated  from  * 
aqueous  solutions  or  solutions  acidulated  with  organic  acids,  by  potassio- 
mercuric  iodide,  sodium  phospho-tungstate,  auric  chloride,  phosphomo- 
lybdic  acid  and  solution  of  iodine,1  all  of  which  reagents  afforded  preci- 
pitates after  the  solution  had  been  acidulated  with  a  mineral  or  oxalic 
acid,  or  had  been  boiled  for  a  few  minutes  with  acetic  acid  ;   he  argues 
from  this  that  the  principle  is  naturally  neutral,  and  is  converted  into 
an  alkaloid  by  the  influences  mentioned.2    The  neutral  substance, 
colchicin,  was  with  some  difficulty  obtainened  in  crystals  by  the  slow 
1  Ludwig  (1862)  obtained  a  thick  precipitate  with  auric  chloride,  readily  soluble 
in  excess,  and  Eberbach  (1874)  found  the  aqueous  solution  of  his  colchicia,  which 
had  a  distinct  alkaline  reaction,  to  be  precipitated  by  the  three  last  reagents  men- 
tioned above. — Editor. 
2  Colchicein  is  formed  under  these  circumstances,  which  combines  with  bases,  but 
not  with  acids. — Editor. 
