Amsept%877arm'}  Gleanings  from  the  Foreign  Journals,  449 
tained  it  in  hemispherical  aggregations  of  microscopical  needles,  which 
are  very  easily  soluble  in  water,  also  in  strong  but  less  in  absolute  alcohol, 
nearly  insoluble  in  ether,  and  have  an  intensely  sweet  afterwards  some- 
what acrid  taste.  Alcoholic  solutions  of  it  are  precipitated  by  calcium 
chloride  and  lead  acetate.  Boiled  with  very  dilute  sulphuric  acid,  a 
fawn-colored  resinous  precipitate  was  obtained,  which  had  the  charac- 
teristic sweet  taste  of  glycyrrhizin.  In  this  respect,  and  in  the  analysis, 
which  differed  to  the  amount  of  several  per  cent,  of  carbon,  the 
author's  results  do  not  agree  with  those  obtained  by  Gorup-Besanez 
in  1 861. —  Chem.  Central  Blatt,  No.  18,  from  Wiener  Sitz.  Ber. — Ber. 
Chem.  Ges.,  1877,  P-  %70' 
Notes  on  the  Saponin  of  Sarsaparilla. — In  an  interesting  paper, 
(published  in  "Archiv  d.  Phar.,"  June,  1877,  p.  532-548,  Prof.  Fluck- 
iger  reviews  the  chemical  history  of  parillin,  and  recommends  its  pre- 
paration by  exhausting  the  crushed  root  with  warm  alcohol,  and  dis- 
tilling the  tincture  until  the  residue  weighs  one-sixth  of  the  root.  It  is 
then  gradually  mixed  with  one-and-a-half  times  its  weight  of  water,  and 
after  several  days  the  liquid  is  decanted  from  the  light-yellow  precipi- 
tate, which  is  then  mixed  with  about  half  its  volume  of  alcohol,  trans- 
ferred to  a  filter  and  washed  with  alcohol  of  20  or  30  per  cent.  Paril- 
lin is  less  soluble  in  weak  than  in  strong  alcohol  or  water.  It  dissolves 
very  slightly  in  cold,  but  readily  in  hot  water,  without  crystallizing  on 
-cooling ;  from  boiling  alcohol,  sp.  gr.  0*970,  it  crystallizes  in  needles. 
The  yield  was  0*18  and  0*19  per  cent. 
Concentrated  sulphuric  acid  yields  a  yellow  solution,  which,  on 
absorbing  moisture,  gradually  turns  cherry -red  ;  warm  diluted  sulphuric 
acid  colors  parillin  greenish,  then  red,  and  finally  brown  ;  phosphoric 
acid  has  a  similar  reaction,  but  the  color  is  more  green-yellow.  The 
aqueous  solution  is  precipitated  by  alcoholic  solution  of  lead  acetate,  by 
lead  subacetate  and  by  tannin,  and  when  warmed  reduces  alkaline  cop- 
per tartrate,  but  does  not  react  with  other  tests  for  sugar  until  after  it 
has  been  boiled  with  a  dilute  acid,  when  the  solution  acquires  a  green 
fluorescence.  This  is  best  observed  if  a  trace  of  parillin  is  dissolved 
in  warm  concentrated  sulphuric  acid,  and  disappears  on  dilution  with 
water  or  on  neutralizing  with  ammonia.  The  decomposition  product, 
parigenin,  is  insoluble  in  water,  the  sugar  appears  to  be  partly  crystal- 
lizable.  Parillin  is  not  sternutatory  ;  its  acrid  taste  is  best  observed  in 
alcoholic  solution. 
29 
