ON THE PREPARATION OF SANTONINE. 
247 
ART. LI.— ON THE PREPARATION OF SANTONINE. 
By M. A. GUILLEMETTE. 
Having latterly had occasion to prepare santonine for use 
in pharmacy, I had recourse to the processes of MM. Koehler 
and Merck. The former treats the semen-contra by sulphu- 
ric ether, and distils off the ether to obtain crystals; these are 
purified by solution in alcohol to which a little hydrochloric 
acid has been added. The latter consists in submitting the 
seed to the action of slacked lime and alcohol, and distilling 
the tincture to one-fourth, filtering to separate the resin, then 
treating with heat the alcoholic extract by concentrated acetic 
acid, which upon cooling deposits the santonine in crystals. 
After frequent solution in alcohol mixed with charcoal, and 
crystallization, it is obtained in a pure state. 
These processes succeed sufficiently well in extracting 
nearly all the santonine from the semen-contra; but they ap- 
pear to me to be too expensive. 
Many German physicians having recognized in this sub- 
stance well marked vermifuge properties, in the dose of 
thirty or forty centigrammes, I have thought that it would not 
be without interest to make known a process by which it 
might be obtained more readily and at less cost, and put it in 
the power of physicians to judge of its medicinal properties. 
In detailing these observations upon that species of stearoptene, 
I am desirous of seeing it some day enriching the portion of 
the materia medica used in infantile cases, as its nature permits 
it to be administered with facility. 
The chemical properties of this substance are very remark- 
able, and have been well investigated by the chemists to whom 
we are indebted for our knowledge of its existence. It presents 
itself as brilliant crystals, under the form of elongated quadri- 
lateral tables; it is insoluble in water, but soluble in alcohol 
and ether; its solutions have a bitter taste. It is neither alka- 
line or acid, nevertheless, it combines strongly with bases, 
and forms with lime, baryta, and oxide of lead, crystallizable 
