216 
BARK OF QUILLAIA SAPONARIA. 
i 
2. A fatty substance united with chlorophylle. 
3. Sugar. 
4. A brown coloring matter, becoming deeper by alkalies. 
5. Gum, (traces.) 
6. A free acid. 
7. A vegetable salt ; the base lime, (malate?) 
S. Amidon. 
'5 phosphate of lime. 
10. Oxide of iron. 
11. Lignin. 
is strongly sternutitory. It is soluble in water in every proportion like gum. 
Its solution is cloudy, but when it has been filtered a number of times, it is 
transparent ; this solution, even when very dilate, froths much by agita- 
tion ; it is sufficient, if water contains a thousandth of its weight, for this 
effect to be considerable. In an equal weight it does not form with 
water a mixture as thick as gum. Evaporated to dryness, this solution 
leaves saponine under the form of a shining crust, easy to detach and to 
reduce to powder. Alcohol at all degrees of strength dissolves it, but 
the power of solution diminishes in the higher degrees. It is dissolved by 
boiling alcohol at 40°. Weak alcohol dissolves it in all proportions. When 
obtained from the alcoholic solution, it absorbs the moisture of the atmos- 
phere, and becomes soft and adherent. Ether possesses no action upon 
it. Exposed to heat, it swells, blackens, does not volatilize, but furnishes 
an empyreumatic acid oil ; in the atmosphere it is inflammable, giving 
off smoke and an aromatic odor. The acids produce no effect upon the aque- 
ous solution. Hydrochloric acid augments its solubility in alcohol. Ni- 
tric acid exerts a peculiar action upon it. The substance is at first dis- 
solved without any reaction except the production of a light yellow color, 
but by the application of heat, the liquid undergoes a kind of coagulation, 
like albuminous water. When the reaction energetically takes place with 
the extrication of suffocating gas, the substance becomes tumid, there is 
finally formed upon the surface of the liquid a yellow resinous matter, 
when the action of the nitric acid has terminated, M. Buzzy regards 
saponine as intermediate between gum and resin. The following is the 
approximative composition which he gives of it : — 
Carbon, 
Hydrogen, - 
Oxygen, 
51.0 
7.4 
41.6 
100.0 
J. C. 
