Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
March,  1884.  { 
Ceanothus  Americanus. 
133 
was  reduced  without  heat  (glucose).  The  remaining  solution  was 
evaporated  to  dryness ;  the  residue  had  very  little  odor,  and  at  first  a 
sweet  taste,  passing  into  that  of  pop-corn,  and  was  considered  to  be 
glucose  and  extractive  matter. 
The  alcoholic  extract  insoluble  in  water  gave  with  dilute  sulphuric 
acid  a  filtrate  in  which  phosphomolybdic  acid  and  potassio-mercuric 
iodide  gave  precipitates  the  same  as  in  acid  solution  of  benzol  extract, 
and  negative  results  for  glucosides. 
The  alcoholic  extract  insoluble  in  dilute  sulphuric  acid,  was  entirely 
soluble  in  dilute  amnionic  hydrate  and  reprecipitated  by  an  acid;  it  was 
blackish  brown,  brittle,  opaque,  inodorous  and  tasteless,  and  in  concen- 
trated alcoholic  solution  had  an  acid  reaction.  It  was  partly  soluble  in 
boiling  water,  not  wmolly  precipitated  on  cooling,  and  partly  soluble  in 
ether,  the  solution  having  a  green  color ;  it  is  an  acid  resin  mixed  with 
coloring  matter,  and  in  alcoholic  solution  gives  a  precipitate  with  lead 
acetate  and  a  green  color  with  ferric  salts.  That  portion  of  the  alco- 
holic extract  which  was  insoluble  in  alcohol  was  found  to  consist  of 
some  coloring  and  extractive  matter. 
The  leaves  previously  exhausted  with  benzol  and  alcohol,  yielded  to 
cold  water  12*795  per  cent,  of  extract  containing  gummy  and  coloring 
matter.  A  decoction  of  the  leaves  did  not  become  blue  with  iodine. 
8  pounds  of  the  air-dry  leaves  distilled  with  water  yielded  about  10 
grains  of  a  light  yellow  oil  having  a  strong  aromatic  odor  and  a  dis- 
tinct acid  reaction. 
The  precipitates  obtained  with  the  benzol  and  with  the  alcohol 
extract  by  potassio-mercuric  iodide  were  separately  treated  with  stan- 
nous chloride  and  potassa ;  on  exhausting  with  ether  and  evaporating, 
minute  apparently  crystalline  residues  were  obtained  which  were  not 
further  examined. 
Arbutin.— Dr.  Mensche  (Centralbl.  f.  Klin.  Med.)  attributes  to 
arbutin  valuable  diuretic  properties,  and  states  that  it  may  be  given  in 
large  doses  without  detriment,  and  that  it  is  excreted  in  the  urine  as 
hydrokinone ;  it  seems  to  be  specially  beneficial  in  vesical  catarrh,  and 
in  gonorrhoea  may  supersede  the  use  of  injections. 
More  than  twenty  years  ago  Dr.  Carl  D.  Schroff  experimented  with 
arbutin,  (Pharmacologic,  p.  142),  and  giving  it  in  doses  of  O'l,  0*2  and 
0'5  Gm.  observed  no  special  action  from  it ;  neither  the  quantity  nor  the 
color  of  the  urine  was  altered,  and  arbutin  could  not  be  detected  in 
the  urine. 
