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Gleanings  in  Materia  Medica. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm, 
I      Sept.,  1885. 
GLEANINGS  IN  MATERIA  MEDICA. 
By  the  Editor. 
Convolvulin  and  Jala^pin.  These  resins  after  having  been  taken 
internally,  could  not  be  detected  by  Bernatzic  (1862)  in  the  urine,  and 
in  the  faeces  only  after  very  large  doses  had  been  given.  Kohler  and 
Zwicke  (1869)  succeeded  in  proving  their  presence  in  the  contents  of 
the  stomach  and  intestines.  In  a  serious  of  experiments  with  cats^ 
made  in  Dorpat  by  Dr.  J.  Miiller  (Thesis,  1885)  the  compounds  named 
or  their  derivatives  were  shown  to  be  absent  from  the  faeces,  urine, 
kidneys  and  bladder ;  the  reactions  were  quite  distinct  with  blood, 
stomach,  jejunum  and  ileum,  faint  with  duodenum  and  the  large 
intestines,  and  very  faint  with  heart,  lungs  and  spleen.  A  cat  having 
been  killed  five  hours  after  taking  0*5  gm.  jalapin  showed  a  relatively 
distinct  reaction  in  the  blood ;  but  the  different  organs  gave  either  a 
very  faint  reaction  or  none. 
The  process  for  separating  the  resins  was  selected  after  a  series  of 
experiments  as  follows :  the  mass  was  macerated  for  a  day  with  3 
times  its  weight  of  96  per  cent,  alcohol,  the  filtrate  concentrated, 
acidulated,  agitated  with  petroleum  benzin  for  the  removal  of  impurities^ 
and  afterwards  with  chloroform,  on  the  evaporation  of  which  the  resin 
was  left  behind.  Blood  treated  in  the  same  manner,  leaves  a  residue 
giving  the  same  reaction,  but  after  treating  this  residue  with  absolute 
alcohol,  filtering  and  evaporating,  the  residue  left  from  blood  does  not 
show  the  reaction,  except  in  the  presence  of  the  resins  named.  The 
test  used  for  the  color  reaction  was  concentrated  sulphuric  acid,  about 
10  drops,  which  dissolves  the  resins  ;  the  solutions  on  the  careful  addi- 
tion of  water  show  a  red  color  within  a  few  minutes,  which,  however 
disappears  rapidly ;  but  if  the  solution  be  allowed  to  absorb  moisture 
from  the  atmosphere,  the  reaction  takes  place  slowly  in  about  an  hour 
and  continues  for  a  longer  time. 
Analysis  of  Brazilian  Coffee.  Fifteen  authentic  samples  were 
analyzed  in  Dragendorff's  laboratory.  The  moisture  was  determined 
from  the  coarse  powder  at  105°  C. ;  all  the  other  determinations  were 
calculated  for  the  dry  substance.  The  ash  was  obtained  from  the  un- 
broken seeds  ;  for  estimating  the  phosphoric  acid,  the  ash  was  dissolved 
in  warm  diluted  hydrochloric  acid,  the  solution  mixed  with  sodium 
acetate,  the  ferric  phosphate  filtered  off,  and  the  phosphoric  acid  in  the 
