Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
July,  1890. 
Bark  of  Quina  Morada. 
353 
In  consideration  of  its  behavior  with  potash,  methysticin  must  be 
regarded  as  the  methyl  salt  of  methysticinic  acid,  CH2:02!C6H3C7 
H703[02  :  C7H7Os  =1:2:4],  the  group  C7H703,  if  methysticinic 
acid  is  regarded  as  a  /9-ketonic  acid,  being  represented  by  the  chain 
— CH:CH-CH:CH-CO-CH2-COOH.  The  author  has  not  succeeded 
in  detecting  the  least  trace  of  benzoic  acid  in  the  oxidation-product 
of  methysticin  (compare  Nblting  and  Kopp,  Mon.  Set.,  1874,  921). 
BARK  OF  QUINA  MORADA.1 
(Togonopus  febrifugus,  Bentham  et  Hooker^) 
By  P.  N.  Arata  and  F.  Canzoneri. 
The  authors  have  examined  a  specimen  of  bark  found  in  Bolivia 
and  in  the  north  of  the  Argentine  Republic,  commonly  known  as 
"  cascarilla  "  or  "  quina  morada,"  and  credited  with  many  of  the 
therapeutic  characteristics  of  the  true  cinchona  bark.  For  a  variety 
of  reasons  the  authors  consider  it  to  belong  to  the  Pogonopus 
febrifugus,  Bent,  et  Hooker.  In  appearance  the  bark  is  irregular  on 
the  outside  and  scaly  within  ;  the  color  varies  from  yellowish  white  to 
reddish,  and  is  a  dirty  white  on  freshly-exposed  surface ;  it  is  soft 
and  spongy  to  the  touch,  a  little  .lighter  than  water,  has  a  slightly 
bitter  taste,  scarcely  any  odor  and  burns  very  readily,  leaving  a 
white  ash.  It  imparts  a  bluish  fluorescence  to  water  with  which  it 
has  been  boiled,  and  a  yellowish  blue  fluorescence  to  alcohol. 
The  substance  was  extracted  from  this  bark,  namely,  a  blue  fluo- 
rescent substance,  moradin,  and  an  alkaloid,  moradeine. 
To  isolate  these,  the  powdered  bark  is  extracted  with  alcohol,  the 
extract  treated  with  an  alcoholic  solution  of  lead  acetate,  filtered, 
freed  from  lead  and  concentrated,  when  a  crystalline  deposit  of 
moradin  is  obtained.  The  mother  liquor  is  then  treated  with  pot- 
ash and  ether,  the  ethereal  extract  treated  with  hydrogen  chloride, 
and  the  precipitate  of  moradeine  hydrochloride  purified  by  again 
treating  it  with  soda,  water,  etc. 
Moradin  contains  no  nitrogen,  and  its  formula  is  either  C21HlsOs 
or  C17HuOe.  The  former  agrees  better  with  the  composition  of  the 
acetyl  derivatives  triacetylmoradin. 
Moradin  crystallizes  in  slender,  colorless  needles,  or  in  large. 
1  Gazzetta,  xviii,  409-421.   Reprinted  from  Jour.  Chem.  Soc,  April,  1890,  p. 
404. 
