290 
Cotton  Root. 
(  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\     July  1, 1872. 
dried  and  reduced  to  a  powder.  It  then  resembled  very  much  in  ap- 
pearance powdered  cochineal. 
The  change  that  had  taken  place  in  the  color  of  the  original  perco- 
late by  the  action  of  heat  during  the  distillation,  was  a  matter  of  much 
surprise  to  me ;  the  resulting  aqueous  solution  and  separated  resin 
being  so  different  in  color  to  that  of  the  original  percolate,  from  a 
pale  amber  color  to  a  dark  red,  resembling  in  appearance  that  of  a 
solution  of  kino. 
The  red  resin  obtained  from  one  pound  avoirdupois  of  bark,  weighed 
210  grains. 
Upon  examination  of  the  dark  resinous  mass,  it  was  found  to  be  in- 
soluble in  the  following  menstrua  :  alcohol,  chloroform,  ether,  aqua 
ammonise,  but  soluble  in  solutions  of  caustic  potassa  and  soda  ;  the  so- 
lution a  dark  purplish-red  color,  and  precipitated  unchanged  on  the 
neutralization  of  the  alkali  by  acids. 
A  portion  of  the  precipitate  that  deposited  by  standing  in  the  fluid 
extract  of  cotton  root  was  filtered  off,  washed  and  dried,  and  submit- 
ted to  the  action  of  the  same  solvents  as  the  resin  mentioned,  and 
with  like  results. 
The  watery  solution  left  in  the  still  was,  as  mentioned,  also  of  a 
dark  red  color,  and  gave  the  following  precipitates  with  solutions  of 
metallic  salts.  With  mercuric  chloride,  red ;  with  argentic  nitrate, 
purplish-red  ;  with  plumbic  acetate,  purplish-red,  and  with  ferric  sul- 
phate, purplish-black. 
The  remaining  portion,  after  making  the  above  tests,  was  precipi- 
tated with  plumbic  acetate,  which  precipitated  the  red  coloring  mat- 
ter, and  left  it  of  a  light  yellow  color ;  then  treated  with  sulphhydric 
acid  to  remove  excess  of  lead,  and,  after  filtration  to  remove  the  sul- 
phide of  lead,  was  evaporated  to  dryness  in  a  water-bath.  The  ex- 
tract mass  left  was  of  a  light  yellow  color,  and  exceedingly  hygro- 
scopic. A  portion  of  it  was  dissolved  in  water,  and  tested  for  the 
presence  of  an  alkaloid  with  solution  of  iodohydrargyrate  of  potassium, 
but  gave  no  indications  of  the  presence  of  any. 
With  Trommer's  copper  test  it  gave  an  abundant  precipitate  of  cu- 
prous oxide,  indicating  the  presence  of  sugar. 
A  portion  was  also  agitated  with  ether,  and  another  with  chloro- 
form, and,  after  separation  had  taken  place,  the  ethereal  and  chloro- 
form solutions  separated  and  left  to  spontaneous  evaporation,  no  crys- 
tallizable  proximate  principles  were  separated.    To  a  quantity  of  the 
