Am.  Jour.  Pharrn. 
June,  1893. 
Cephalanthin. 
CEPHALANTHIN.1 
f   By  Carl  Mohrberg. 
By  extracting  cephalanthus  bark  with  boiling  water  and  fractionally 
precipitating  the  extract  with  lead  acetate,  in  three  fractions,  there 
were  obtained  in  the  first  cephalanthin  and  coloring  matters,  in  the 
second  a  tannin  and  in  the  third  a  saponin.  But  the  greater  por- 
tion of  the  cephalanthin  is  contained  in  the  pressed  bark,  and  is 
obtained  by  boiling  this  with  lime  water,  precipitating  the  lime  with 
carbonic  anhydride,  and,  finally,  the  cephalanthin  with  hydrochloric 
acid.  It  is  very  bitter,  even  in  dilution  of  I  :  15,000,  very  soluble 
in  alcohol,  ethyl  acetate,  ammonia  and  soda,  slightly  in  hot  and 
cold  water,  ether  and  chloroform,  not  at  all  in  benzene  and  light 
petroleum.  It  is  a  feeble  acid,  and  displaces  carbonic  anhydride 
from  carbonates.  Its  composition  is  C22H3406  ;  it  begins  to  liquefy 
at  1770,  and  melts  at  180- 1 0  (corr.),  and  in  alkaline  solution  has 
[«]D  ==  20-25°.  Strong  sulphuric  acid  colors  it  orange,  hydro- 
chloric acid  violet,  sulphovanadic  acid  pink,  dilute  gallic  acid  or 
strong  sulphuric  at  700  at  first  red,  then  violet,  a-naphtholsulphonic 
and  thymolsulphonic  acids  violet  or  reddish-violet.  Acids  decom- 
pose it  into  a  sugar,  C6H12Oe  (whose  phenylosazone  melts  at  196- 
1980),  and  an  acid  substance,  cephalantein,  C16H2303 ;  it  is  thus  a 
glucoside. 
The  cephalanthus  tannin  mentioned  above  is  a  reddish-yellow 
powder,  soluble  in  alcohol  and  hot  water,  and  gives  a  green  colora- 
tion with  ferric  salts.  It  is  probably  a  mixture  of  "  true  tannic 
acid  "  with  another  substance,  the  cephalethin  of  Claassen.  The 
cephalanthus  saponin  is  a  poison  which  dissolves  the  blood  corpus- 
cles ;  it  is  not  very  active,  however. 
Cephalanthin,  when  injected,  acts  as  a  poison,  dissolving  the 
blood  corpuscles,  the  coloring  matter  of  which  goes  into  the  serum 
and  the  urine  as  oxyhemoglobin,  and  is  then  changed  into 
methaemoglobin.  Cramp,  vomiting  and  paralysis  appear,  and  jaun- 
dice, caused  by  an  enormously  increased  secretion  of  bile.  Among 
the  earlier  symptoms  are  movements  of  the  intestines,  but  neither 
the  heart,  vagus  nerve,  nor  vasomotor  system  is  affected.    The  iron 
1  Chem.  Centr.,  1892,  ii,  363  ;  from  Arb.  Pharm.  Inst.  Dorpat,  8,  20-50  ; 
Jour.  Chem.  Soc,  Abstr.,  1893,  i,  p.  112;  compare  also  E.  M.  Hattan,  Amer. 
Jour.  Phar.,  1874,  p.  310,  and  B.  Claassen,  Phar.  Rundschau,  1889,  p.  131. 
