44  The  Apocynacece  in  Materia  Medica.    {A  j^uaryS™* 
in  the  embryo,  which  then  changes  to  an  orange  and  then  a  red 
wine  lees  color,  which  persists  for  a  long  time.  The  liquid  likewise 
becoming  strongly  colored. 
Chemical  Constituents  of  Strophanthus. — In  1865,  Pelikan  and 
Vulpian  made  the  first  physiological  study  of  strophanthus  with  a 
hydro-alcoholic  extract  of  seeds  brought  from  Africa  by  Griffon 
du  Bellay.  In  1869,  Fraser  published  his  first  work  giving  the 
chemistry  and  therapeutics.  He  studied  in  reality,  not  the  wS\  his- 
pidus,  but  the  S.  Kombe,  and  applied  the  name  strophanthin  to  a 
principle  which  he  isolated  imperfectly  and  which  he  supposed  to 
be  an  alkaloid.  Then  Legros  made  a  series  of  experiments  with 
the  poisoned  arrows  of  the  Pahouins.  In  1872,  came  the  experi- 
ments of  Palaillon  and  Carville,  who  employed  the  .S.  glaber  likewise 
under  the  name  of  5.  hispidns.  In  1877,  Gallois  and  Hardy  in  their 
analyses  obtained  results  different  from  those  of  Fraser,  which  now  is 
fully  explained,  as  instead  of  the  S„  Kombe  employed  by  Fraser,  they 
used  5.  glaber.  They  isolated  two  substances:  the  one  Ineine  ex- 
tracted from  the  awns,  a  body  with  alkaloidal  properties  and  peculiar 
physiological  action,  but  of  which  the  existence  even  was  afterwards 
contested  by  Elborne  and  by  Gerrard ;  the  other,  the  slroplianthin 
crystallizable,  separated  from  the  seeds  alone,  and  which  accord- 
ing to  these  authors  was  neither  an  alkaloid  nor  a  glucoside. 
Catillon  in  numerous  analyses  of  the  products  of  various  origin 
obtained  different  stroplianthins,  some  amorphous,  others  variously 
crystallized.  Fraser,  Adrian  and  Bardet,  Catillon  etc.,  showed  the 
glucosidal  nature  of  the  principle  and  admitted  the  co-existence  in 
the  strophanthus  of  another  body,  alkaloid  according  to  some, 
glucoside  likewise  according  to  the  others.  Finally,  the  magnifi- 
cent work  of  Arnaud  proved  the  absence  of  stroplianthin,  properly 
named,  in  the  5.  hispidus,  its  presence  in  S.  Kombe,  the  replacement 
of  the  strophanthin  by  ouabain  in  the  >S.  glaber.  He  gives  the 
composition  of  these  bodies,  and  indicates  the  formulas,  and  shows 
finally  the  relation  between  these  two  important  substances,  of 
which  the  one  (strophanthin)  is  a  higher  homologue  of  the  other 
(ouabain). 
The  stropliantliin  from  5.  Kombe  is  a  non-nitrogenized  glucoside 
with  all  the  characters  of  the  glucosides  and  readily  yields  with  dilute 
acids  glucose  and  strongly  toxic  substance,  strophanthidin,  of  which 
the  effects  are  not  otherwise  the  same  as  those  of  strophanthine. 
