202 
Uva  ursi. 
f  Am,  Jour.  Pharm. 
\    May  1, 1871. 
UYA  URSI. 
By  Julius  Jungmann. 
(Condensed  from  the  author's  Inaugural  Essay.) 
[The  author  gives  a  good  botanical  description  of  the  plant  and  its 
habitat ;  he  describes  the  drug,  refers  to  its  introduction  in  medicine, 
and  reviews  the  analyses  made  since  1809  to  the  present  time,  when 
he  proceeds  to  his  own  experiments.  The  thesis  was  accompanied  bj 
specimens  of  most  of  the  principles  isolated.] 
A  quantity  of  coarsely  powdered  Uva  ursi  leaves  was  exhausted 
with  cold  w^ater  by  percolation,  the  infusion  heated  to  the  boiling 
point,  strained,  a  greenish  flocculent  coagulum  of  albumen  was  left 
on  the  strainer  ;  the  infusion,  after  having  been  more  concentrated, 
was  treated  witli  freshly  prepared  hydrated  oxide  of  lead,  until 
it  would  no  longer  produce  a  precipitate ;  this  was  separated  by 
a  filter.  The  filtrate  still  more  concentrated  by  evaporation,  was  di- 
vided into  two  parts,  the  first  was  set  aside  in  a  warm  place  to  evap- 
orate spontaneously,  the  second  was  treated  with  strong  alcohol ;  this 
produced  a  bulky  precipitate  of  gummy  matter,  which  was  removed 
by  filtration  ;  the  alcoholic  filtrate  was  again  divided  into  two  portions, 
the  first  set  aside  to  evapoi'ate  spontaneously,  the  second  evaporated 
to  a  syrup  and  then  treated  with  ether  ;  the  difterent  ethereal  solutions 
were  mixed  and  evaporated  at  common  temperature.  The  residue  con- 
sisted of  a  mass  of  nearly  colorless  prismatic  crystals  of  considerable 
size,  of  a  bitter  slightly  acrid  taste,  with  a  small  quantity  of  resinous 
matter  of  peculiarly  disagreeable  odor  adhering — Ericolin. 
They  could  be  easily  purified  by  either  washing  them  with  ether, 
which  would  dissolve  out  the  resin,  or  else  by  dissolving  them  in  a 
small  quantity  of  boiling  water,  filtering  and  recrystalizing ;  thus  puri- 
fied from  water  they  were  inodorous,  not  near  as  large,  but  small 
needles  having  a  sjlky  lustre. 
The  alcoholic  solution  yielded  a  dark  colored  extract  nearly  black  ; 
this  Avas  redissolved  in  alcohol  and  treated  with  animal  charcoal,  fil- 
tered and  again  evaporated  spontaneously  ;  yielded,  after  being  pressed 
and  dried,  yellowish  white  crystals  of  a  flocculent  character  having  no 
odor. 
The  aqueous  solution,  which  had  been  set  aside  in  a  warm  place  was 
found,  after  about  two  weeks  standing,  to  consist  of  a  soft  extractive 
mass,  covered  all  over  the  surface  with  small  wdiite  crystals,  very  dif- 
