326 
A  Species  of  Commelina. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharnt. 
July,  1898. 
after  boiling  the  liquid  under  investigation  with  acid,  a  greater 
reduction  of  Fehling's  solution  occurred. 
Neither  ether  nor  chloroform  removed  anything  from  the  acidified 
aqueous  solution  with  which  they  had  been  agitated.  The  acidified 
aqueous  solution  was  then  rendered  alkaline  with  ammonium 
hydrate,  and  again  agitated  in  a  separating  funnel  with  benzin, 
ether  and  chloroform,  as  previously  described.  The  benzin  once 
more  removed  a  small  amount  of  reddish  substance,  which  dissolved 
Fig.  4. 
in  water  and  reacted  with  Fehling's  solution,  as  did  the  substance 
removed  by  benzin  from  the  acid  solution.  Gold  and  silver  salts 
were  not  reduced  by  this  substance  either.  The  treatment  with 
ether  removed  some  substance  having  the  same  character  as  that 
material  taken  out  by  benzin.  Mayer's  reagent  and  potassium  tri- 
iodide  gave  no  evidence  of  alkaloids  in  the  substances  extracted 
from  the  alkaline  aqueous  solution. 
