324 BERBERINE IN BARBERRY AND COLUMBO ROOT. 
The production of the same peculiar vegetable principle in 
plants of the two families supports this view. 
The peculiar vegetable principles to which the alkaloids 
belong are said nearly all to occur in the so-called laticifer- 
ous vessels, and never in the cells of the plant. A micro- 
scopic examination of the roots of Cocculus palmatus and 
Berberis vulgaris showed however that in both the 
berberine is deposited in the thickening layers of cellular 
membrane. 
With respect to columbine, the small quantity procured 
by the author did not admit of his arriving at perfectly 
satisfactory results as to its composition. The mean of two 
analyses led to the formula C^^ h« 0^ . 
From the mode of occurrence of columbine in the Columbo 
root it is probable that its production in the vegetable 
organism precedes that of the berberine, as the columbine 
is found only in the exterior and younger parts of the 
parenchymatous tissue, while scarcely any is observed 
where vascular bundles are developed. 
If we suppose that the base has been formed from the 
non-ni(rogenous body by the action of ammonia, a remark- 
able relation is evident between columbine and berberine 
on the one hand and picrotoxine and menispermine on the 
other. The basic menispermine occurs in the shells of the 
fruit of Anamirta cocculus which are exposed to the 
reducing action of sunlight ; the picrotoxine is met with in 
the kernels. While in the present instance the formation 
of the base from the non-nitrogenous body is connected with 
a process of deoxidation,in the case of the root of Cocculus 
palmatus^ which is protected from the sunlight, it is con- 
nected with a process of oxidation. 
When 3 equivs. of oxygen are added to 3 equivs. colum- 
bine and 1 equiv. ammonia, and 9 equivs. water removed, 
the composhion of berberine is obtained. The author is at 
present engaged with experiments in this direction. — Chem, 
Gaz,from Journ. fut. Praht, Chem* 
