THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHJlMAC 
APRIL,  igiji 
THE  QUALITATIVE  SEPARATION^l^p^^pfTlFICA- 
TION  OF  SOME  OXYMETHYLANTHfe^QUlNONES. 
By  E.  Monroe  Bailey. 
The  color  principles  in  medicinal  plants  are  not,  as  a  rule  at 
least,  their  so-called  "  active  principles," — that  is,  the  constituents 
upon  which  the  therapeutic  value  of  the  plants  depends, — but  they 
are  so  intimately  associated  with  these  constituents  that  a  knowledge 
of  their  behavior  is  of  service  both  in  the  assay  of  crude  drugs  and 
in  the  examination  of  medicinal  preparations. 
The  common  cathartic  drugs,  senna,  rhubarb,  aloes,  and  the 
various  species  of  buckthorn,  are  characterized  by  a  group  of  color 
principles  known  as  oxymethylanthraquinones.  These  compounds 
are  derivatives  of  the  fundamental  substance  anthracene,  C14H10,  or, 
more  directly,  of  its  diketone,  anthraquinone,  C14Hs02.  From  these 
two  substances  a  large  group  of  vegetable  colors  is  derived.1  Al- 
though the  oxymethylanthraquinones  are  not  confined  to  the  cathartic 
drugs,  their  presence  will  usually  indicate  a  more  or  less  restricted 
group  of  plants  of  medicinal  value.  Xone  of  the  above-named  drugs 
is  characterized  by  a  single  anthraquinone  derivative,  but.  rather, 
each  contains  a  mixture  of  several  of  them,  so  that  the  identification 
of  any  particular  oxymethylanthraquinone  fails  of  the  diagnostic 
value  it  would  otherwise  have.  Mossier,2  however,  has  differen- 
tiated between  senna,  rhubarb,  and  cascara  on  the  basis  of  the 
oxymethylanthraquinone  crystals  obtained  by  recry'stallization  from 
hot  acetic  acid. 
The  Borntrager  reaction  3  is  given  by  all  the  natural  oxymethyl- 
1  Czapek,  "  Biochemie  der  Pflanzen  II/'  p.  528. 
2 Through  Analyst  38,  321  (1913). 
3 Zeit,  anal.  Chem.  (1880),  p.  165. 
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