920 
Quinine  Sulphate  in  Java. 
(  Am.  Jour.  Pliarni. 
\      DccemhLT,  1920. 
alkaloid  and  coloring  matter  together,  15  per  cent.  At  that 
time  the  cost  of  production  for  one  ounce  amounted  to  one  rupee, 
and  it  was  sold  by  the  Indian  Government  at  the  rate  of  i  rupee  8 
annas. 
In  1873  C.  H.  Wood  was  intrusted  by  the  British  Government 
with  the  task  of  investigating  the  possibilities  of  preparing  quinine 
from  the  Bengal  plantations,  particularly  in  Skikkim.  He  followed 
practically  the  same  method  as  adopted  by  de  Vrij,  which  yielded 
an  amorphous  white  powder,  known  in  India  as  "Cinchona  Febri- 
fuge" (in  Java  it  was  termed  by  de  Vrij  "Quinetum"),  which  in  1875 
was  sold  by  the  Indian  Government  at  20  rupees  a  pound.  The 
first  attempts  to  manufacture  alkaloids  from  the  bark  in  Java  were 
made  in  1870,  further  investigations  were  undertaken  in  1872  by 
Moens,  and  in  1877  Bydman  introduced  de  Vrij's  process.  This 
consisted  of  extracting  the  bark  with  i  per  cent,  hydrochloric  acid 
for  three  days,  and  then  precipitating  the  alkaloids  by  caustic  soda. 
The  residue  was  dissolved  in  dilute  sulphuric  acid  and  a  precipitate  . 
obtained  by  the  addition  of  caustic  soda. 
In  1900  Van  Leersum  secured  the  assistance  of  an  expert  staff  at 
the  Bandoeng  factory,  of  which  he  was  appointed  director  in  1902, 
and  im^mediately  set  to  work  to  'sove  the  problem  of  the  manufacture 
of  pure  quinine  in  Java.  He  then  discussed  the  various  factors  which 
have  to  be  considered  in  the  manufacture  of  a  pure  product,  and  the 
difficulties  that  have  to  be  overcome,  which  may  be  briefly  referred 
to  in  the  following  points. 
Calcium  hydroxide  is  the  best  base  for  separating  the  alkaloids 
from  the  bark,  but  in  order  to  render  the  cell  walls  permeable  to  the 
calcium  hydroxide,  the  addition  of  sodium  hydroxide  is  necessary, 
and  pow^dered  bark,  calcium  h3^droxide,  and  sodium  hydroxide  must 
be  intimately  mixed.  The  relative  proportions  are  30  parts  of  fine 
slacked  lime  to  100  parts  of  finely  powdered  dry  bark,  and  90  parts 
of  a  0.5  per  cent,  solution  of  sodium  hydroxide  for  each  100  parts  of 
bark.  This  mixture  is  placed  in  an  extractor,  and,  under  the  circum- 
stances, the  best  extractive  is  benzol  with  a  high  boiling  point  or 
toluol  of  120  degrees  C.  boiling-point,  which  dissolves  quinine  1:3. 
Petroleum  and  other  earth  oils  have  also  been  used  as  extractives; 
if  the  latter  are  employed  the  alkaloids  are  extracted  by  the  addition 
of  dilute  sulphuric  acid.  If  a  substance  is  used  which  can  be  dis- 
tilled off,  /.  e.,  benzol,  dilute  acid  is  first  added  to  retain  the  alkaloids 
in  solution  when  removing  the  solvent  by  distillation.  The  acid 
solution  of  alkaloid  is  brought  to  boiling  by  steam,  neutralized  by  the 
