Am.  Jour.  Pharm."! 
August,  1896.  J 
Rumex  Nepalensis. 
441 
which  is  more  soluble.  When  the  proportion  of  quinine  which 
must  be  added  has  thus  been  determined,  we  treat  the  residue  of 
the  liquid  with  the  calculated  quantity  of  quinine.  After  settling 
for  twenty-four  hours,  we  filter  and  recommence  the  same  operation 
upon  the  mother  liquor. 
If  the  liquid  does  not  precipitate  under  these  conditions — that  is 
to  say,  if  it  contains  no  citric  acid- — we  search  for  malic  acid,  by 
adding  in  one  part  of  the  methylic  liquid,  as  concentrated  as  possi- 
ble, increasing  quantities  of  cinchonine,  the  maximum  dose  of  which 
may  be  fixed  at  140  to  150  per  cent,  of  the  estimated  quantity  of 
malic  acid. 
If  the  two  acids  are  simultaneously  present,  when  the  liquid  is  no 
longer  precipitated  by  quinine  we  add  cinchonine,  the  action  of 
which  is  not  interfered  with  by  the  excess  of  quinine. 
It  is  easy  to  recover  the  corresponding  acids  from  the  salts  of 
quinine  and  cinchonine  obtained.  It  is  sufficient  to  add  to  the 
aqueous  solution  of  these  salts  ammonia,  to  filter  off  the  alkaloids, 
to  precipitate  the  liquid  with  basic  lead  acetate,  and  then  decompose 
the  precipitate  with  hydrogen  .sulphide ;  or  we  may  render  both 
the  acid  and  the  base  insoluble  by  means  of  baryta,  exhaust  the 
dried  precipitate  with  alcohol,  and  decompose  the  barium  salt  with 
sulphuric  acid. 
By  these  methods  I  have  been  able  to  extract  the  citric  acid  con- 
tained in  lemons  and  gooseberries,  and  extract  the  malic  acid  con- 
tained in  cherries. 
RUMEX  NEPALENSIS,  WALL.1  ^ 
By  O.  Hesse. 
In  Madras  and  other  parts  of  India  grows  abundantly  a  species  of 
rumex,  Rumex  nepalensis,  Wall.,  which,  on  account  of  its  astringent 
properties,  is  well  known  to  the  natives,  who  likewise  apply  it  in 
medicine  and  for  dyeing. 
Mr.  D.  Hooper,  quinologist  to  the  Government  of  Madras, 
examined  the  root  of  this  plant,  and  was  of  the  opinion  that  it  con- 
tained chrysophanic  acid.  But  when  Hesse  pointed  out  that  this 
substance  differed  from  the  chrysophanic  acid  of  Parmelia  parietina, 
Hooper  wished  his  investigation  repeated  by  Hesse,  and  sent  him 
1  Liebig's  Annalen  der  Chemie,  391,  305,  and  Pharmaceutical  Journal,  (4) 
3,  441. 
