BARK OP QUILLAI A SAPONARIA. 
215 
ble proportion of lime, and a small quantity of the phosphate 
of this base. We think that the carbonate of lime came from 
the decomposition of a vegetable salt, which we believe to be 
the submalate, and which in another experiment was deposited 
spontaneously in the liquid. 
Different reagents occasion marked changes in the aqueous 
solution of this substance. Ammonia produces slight cloudiness, 
and the color augments in intensity. Lime water forms with 
it a flocculose precipitate, soluble in the acids ; the nitrate of 
baryta, a deposit equally soluble in these agents; the oxalate of 
ammonia indicates the presence of much lime; and the nitrate 
of silver, traces of the hydrochlorate. 
The portion of the extract upon which cold water was 
without action, was treated with boiling water, the decanted 
liquid was treated with the tincture of iodine, by which was 
recognised the presence of amilaceous fecula. 
By boiling the bark of the quillaia, which had been sub- 
jected to boiling water, with hydrochloric acid, there was dis- 
solved a large proportion of the salts of lime, composed of a 
small amount of the phosphate, and another, which we sup- 
posed to be a malate, as above. There was also found an 
oxide of iron, but not the sulphate. Finally, we did not ex- 
amine for silica, its presence appeared to us without interest, 
and the small quantity of bark which we had at our command 
did not permit us much to vary our experiments. ' 
To resume, the bark of quillaia contains : 
I. A peculiar matter, exceedingly pungent, soluble in water 
and alcohol, foaming by agitation with water, drying in thin 
transparent plates.* 
* The peculiar principle here detected is Saponine, which exists in 
other vegetables, as the Gypsophila struthium, Saponaria officinalis, Sapin- 
dus saponaria, laurifolius, and rigidus, the Leontice leoniopetalum, &c. It 
has been studied by Bucholz and Bussy. The following account of its pro- 
perties is taken from a paper of the latter, on the root of the Gypsophila 
struihium, in the xix. vol. of the Journ. de Pharmacie. 
Saponine is white, uncrystallizable, endowed with an acrid taste, which 
is pungent and very persistent ; it is friable. Reduced to fine powder, it 
