Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
April,  1876.  J 
Veratrum  Viride. 
153 
remove  all  the  resin  from  the  precipitated  carbonate  of  lime.  After 
drying  the  precipitate,  it  yielded  the  resin  to  ether.  This  experiment 
demonstrates  the  manner  in  which  this  resin  follows  the  alkaloid  con- 
taining earthy  salts  in  dissolving  in  acids,  and  precipitating  with  it  on 
addition  of  alkalies.) 
The  resin  was  dissolved  in  alcohol  and  digested  with  animal  char- 
coal, until  most  of  the  color  was  removed.  The  alcohol  left,  on  evapo- 
ration, a  soft  resin.  This  resin  reacts  with  strong  sulphuric  acid*in  a 
manner  well  calculated  to  suggest  the  presence  of  veratria, — giving  a 
brownish-red  color  passing  to  a  cherry-red,  and  finally  to  a  mahogany 
color.  After  standing  some  hours  the  solution  looses  its  color  and 
carbonized  particles  separate. 
To  hydrochloric  acid  in  the  cold,  this  resin  imparts  a  light  pink 
color. 
The  resin  was  treated  with  warm  acetic  acid,  and  found  to  contain 
no  alkaloid. 
As  the  result  of  these  experiments  we  find  jervia  to  be  the  only  alka- 
loid in  the  root  of  veratrum  viride.  The  so-called  veratroidia  is  a  mix- 
ture of  jervia  with  a  light-colored  resin  ;  the  larger  the  amount  of  this 
resin  present,  the  greater  will  be  the  proportion  of  jervia  taken  up  by 
ether.  In  the  first  experiment  we  had  eight  grains  dissolving  in  ether 
out  of  thirty  ;  in  the  second,  where  the  resin  was  more  completely  re- 
moved by  caustic  soda,  eighty  grains  yielded  but  two  grains  to  ether. 
The  reaction  of  the  alkaloid  with  sulphuric  acid,  hitherto  considered 
to  indicate  the  presence  of  veratria,  is  due  to  a  resin  which  is  taken  up 
by  ether,  and  which  adheres  with  great  persistence  to  the  alkaloid,  dis- 
solving and  precipitating  with  it. 
The  interesting  question  arises,  to  what  are  we  to  attribute  the 
marked  difference  in  the  physiological  effects  shown  by  experiments 
made  with  jervia  and  "  veratroidia  ?"  It  must  be  attributed  to  the 
resin — either  per  se  or  as  modifying  the  effects  of  jervia.  The  subject 
is  worthy  of  further  investigation. 
To  obtain  jervia  entirely  white,  the  nitrate  is  decomposed  by  digest- 
ing it  with  a  solution  of  caustic  soda,  washing,  redissolving  in  acetic 
acid,  precipitating  by  soda,  dissolving  in  hot  alcohol,  evaporating  and 
crystallizing.  It  crystallizes  in  white  prismatic  crystals  resembling  sul- 
phate of  morphia.  These  crystals  fuse  at  3800  to  3850  F.,  and  are 
insoluble  in  ether.    From  acetic  solution  caustic  alkalies,  including 
