THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
JULT,  1879. 
VERATRUM  VIRIDE— NOTES  OF  AN  EXAMINATION. 
By  Charles  Bullock. 
When  the  root  of  veratrum  viride  is  digested  in  water  acidulated 
with  sulphuric  acid  at  a  temperature  of  I50°F.,  the  mass  becomes 
gelatinous  and  swells  up  to  an  increased  bulk.  When  expressed  and 
alcohol  is  added  to  the  expressed  liquor,  a  copious  deposit  of  pectic 
acid  is  occasioned. 
The  presence  of  pectose  and  the  large  amount  of  resin  and  fatty 
matter  contained  in  the  root  makes  the  use  of  alcohol  necessary  for  its 
exhaustion. 
Fifty-three  pounds  of  veratrum  viride — rhizome  with  rootlets — from 
North  Carolina,  in  powder,  was  exhausted  with  alcohol,  the  alcohol 
distilled  off  and  the  resulting  extract  exposed  to  a  continued  moderate 
heat  until  all  of  the  alcohol  was  expelled.  During  this  process  the  resin 
separated  from  the  soft  extract.  It  was  removed  and  allowed  to  drain 
for  several  weeks  during  the  warm  weather  of  summer. 
The  weight  of  the  soft  extract  was  .  .  6  lbs.  10^  oz.  av'd. 
The  weight  of  the  hard  resin  was       .  3  l<  4 
Total  weight  of  extract  from  53  lbs.  of  root,    9  lbs.  14^ 
This  extract  furnished  the  material  for  examination. 
In  separating  the  alkaloids,  advantage  was  taken  of  the  previously- 
ascertained  fact  that  all  of  the  alkaloids  were  imperfectly  precipitated 
from  acid  solutions  by  caustic  alkalies  or  alkaline  carbonates  at  ordinary 
temperatures,  but  if  the  solution  is  heated  to  I50°F.,  the  precipitation 
is  almost  complete. 
The  Soft  Extract. — Eighty-six  per  cent,  of  this  extract  is  soluble  in 
water.  Petroleum  benzin  removes  4^3  per  cent,  of  fatty  matter. 
After  removal  of  the  alkaloids,  the  watery  solution  was  treated  in  the 
usual  manner  with  subacetate  of  lead,  and  after  separating  the  excess 
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