330 
A  Species  of  Commelina. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
July,  1898. 
tated  when  the  acidulated  water  extract  was  rendered  alkaline  with 
ammonium  hydrate. 
In  order  to  estimate  the  starch  of  the  plant,  the  residue  of  the 
latter,  from  the  foregoing  extractions,  was  boiled  with  5  per  cent, 
hydrochloric  acid  for  three  hours  to  hydrolize  the  starch.  The  re- 
sulting glucose  was  treated  with  Fehling's  solution,  and  the  extent 
to  which  this  reagent  was  acted  on  indicated  the  presence  of  0-48 
per  cent,  of  starch. 
After  the  conversion  of  the  starch  there  remained  30.95  per  cent, 
of  cellulose,  lignin  and  similar  organic  substances. 
A  special  search  was  made  for  volatile  acids.  For  this  purpose  a 
condenser  was  thoroughly  cleaned  by  boiling  distilled  water  in  a 
flask  into  which  the  plant  was  afterward  put,  and  conducting  the 
vapors  through  the  condenser  until  the  drippings  were  perfectly 
neutral  toward  litmus  paper.  Ten  grammes  of  fresh  plant  were 
then  placed  in  the  flask,  distilled  water  added,  and  heat  reapplied. 
The  reaction  of  the  distillate  was  tested  with  litmus,  at  intervals 
during  the  distillation,  but  no  change  in  color  was  produced.  The 
distillate  was  returned  to  the  flask,  and  the  contents  of  the  latter 
acidified  with  diluted  sulphuric  acid,  for  the  purpose  of  decomposing 
any  salt  of  a  volatile  acid  which  might  be  present.  The  contents  of 
the  flask  were  then  subjected  to  distillation,  and  the  distillate  occa- 
sionally tested  during  the  process  with  litmus  paper ;  the  reaction 
was  neutral. 
The  distillate  was  once  more  returned  to  the  flask  contain- 
ing the  plant,  and  the  contents  strained  and  filtered.  The 
filtrate  was  made  alkaline  with  ammonium  hydrate  and  suc- 
cessively agitated  with  benzin,  ether  and  chloroform  in  a  sepa- 
rating funnel,  but  no  evidence  of  alkaloids  was  obtained,  from 
the  small  amounts  of  organic  matter  which  these  solvents  re- 
moved, upon  the  addition  of  Mayer's  reagent,  potassium  tri-iodide, 
picric  acid,  phosphotungstic  acid,  and  gold  chloride  to  the  acidi- 
fied aqueous  solution  of  this  matter.  When  heated  with  them, 
the  substance  in  solution  had  no  reducing  effect  on  either  ammoni- 
acal  silver  nitrate  or  gold  chloride  solutions.  The  alkaline  aqueous 
liquid  with  which  the  benzin,  ether  and  chloroform  had  been  agi- 
tated was  supersaturated  with  diluted  sulphuric  acid.  A  flocculent 
precipitate  was  produced  by  this  treatment,  but  it  redissolved  in 
the  course  of  a  few  minutes.    This  solution  was  divided  into  four 
