Am.  Jour.  Pbarm. 
August,  1SE6. 
} 
Jaborandi  and  Its  Alkaloids. 
445 
solved  quickly  with  the  same  color,  and  in  concentrated  sulphuric 
acid  with  an  intense  yellow-red  color  On  the  addition  of  some 
water  to  the  latter  solution,  the  substance  separated,  unaltered,  in 
yellow  flocks.  When  barium  chloride  and  lead  acetate  were  added 
to  its  ammonia  solution,  a  grayish- yellow  amorphous  deposit  was 
formed.  Heated  with  hydriodic  acid  according  to  the  method 
of  Zeisel,  it  developed  no  alkyl  iodide,  but  was  left  as  a  black- 
brown  resin. 
Diacetylnepodin. — When  treated  with  a  surplus  of  acetic  anhy- 
dride for  six  hours  at  a  temperature  of  85 °,  a  crystalline  derivative 
was  formed.  This  compound  crystallized  in  large,  tabular,  pale 
yellow  rhomboids.  It  contained  no  water  of  crystallization,  and 
melted  at  1980,  with  decomposition.    Its  formula  was  considered  to 
These  results  show  that  Rumex  nepalensis,  Wall,  contains  a  series 
of  substances  totally  different  from  those  found  in  the  allied  group 
of  Rheum,  of  which  rhubarb  is  a  member.  The  latter  drug  con- 
tains chrysophanic  acid,  C15H10O4,  emodin,  C15H10O5,  and  rhei'n 
C15H10O6,  these  substances  differing  in  their  proportion  of  oxygen, 
while  the  principles  found  in  Rumex  nepalensis,  Wall.,  seem  to 
form  a  homologous  series,  the  members  of  which  differ  by  CH2. 
There  is  not  sufficient  proof  to  establish  the  identity  of  chryso- 
phanic acid  and  the  rumicin  obtained  from  the  other  members 
of  the  Rumex  group,  but  their  uniformity  of  behavior,  when 
treated  with  hydriodic  acid,  is  a  subject  on  which  further  en- 
lightenment is  required. 
Although  jaborandi  is  defined  in  the  British  Pharmacopoeia  as  the 
dried  leaflets  of  Pilocarpus  pennatifolius,  it  is  certain  that  the  drug 
met  with  in  commerce,  under  the  name  of  jaborandi,  is  frequently, 
in  part,  the  produce  of  other  species  of  Pilocarpus  and,  in  some 
instances,  even  of  plants  belonging  to  another  genus.  As  to  the 
nature  of  the  basic  constituents  of  these  different  drugs,  but  little 
is  known,  and  the  discrepancies  in  the  descriptions  given  of  pilocar- 
pine are  very  suggestive  of  doubt  whether  the  alkaloid  referred  to 
be  C1SH14(C2H30)204. 
JABORANDI  AND  ITS  ALKALOIDS.1  ^ 
By  Dr.  B.  H.  Paui,  and  A.  J.  Cowxley. 
1  Pharm.  Jour.  (4),  3,  1  (July  4,  1896). 
