Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ) 
July,  1883.  j 
Chichocerotin. 
357 
precipitate,  likewise  by  the  addition  of  25  per  cent,  of  sesame  oil ;  but 
smaller  additions  do  not  admit  of  recognition  by  this  method.  With 
an  admixture  of  rape  seed  oil  the  boundary  of  recognition  is  first  with 
50  per  cent.,  and  it  is  then  first  that  the  oil  perfectly  separates  from 
the  alcohol  solution. 
The  considerable  depression  of  the  melting  point  of  the  fatty  acids, 
together  with  the  sulphur  reaction  and  the  insolubitity  of  the  oil  in 
alcohol,  presents,  however,  also  here  a  means  for  the  recognition  of 
small  quantities  in  olive  oil. 
ON  CINCHOCEROTIN. 
By  a.  Helms. 
Abstracted  from  ''Archiv  dcr  Pharm.'^  Bd.  221,  Heft.  4,  1883 /pp.  279-283. 
By  Dr.  Fred.  B.  Power. 
Under  the  name  of  cinchocerotin  Kerner  exhibited  at  the  world's 
exposition  in  Paris  and  London,  in  1859  and  1862  a  constituent  of 
the  cinchona  barks  which  had  been  discovered  by  him.  With  regard 
to  the  method  of  preparation  of  cinchocerotin.  Dr.  Kerner  has  com- 
municated the  following  to  Prof.  Fliickiger : 
"  Flat  South  American  Calisaya  bark  was  dried  with  milk  of  lime, 
'extracted  by  boiling  alcohol  and  the  liquid  cooled.  The  cooling  of 
the  liquid  was  effected  in  copper  tubes,  through  which  the  solution 
was  slowly  conducted.  After  from  six  to  nine  months  the  tubes  were 
incrusted  with  crude  cinchocerotin.'^ 
The  crude  cinchocerotin  is  a  brown  mass,  fi'om  which  two  different 
■constituents  may  be  prepared,  viz.  :  a  crystalline  white  body,  readily 
soluble  in  alcohol,  and,  in  much  smaller  amount,  a  whitish-yellow 
substance,  sparingly  soluble  in  alcohol.  The  latter  is  likewise  spar- 
ingly soluble  in  ether,  chloroform,  benzol,  and  the  more  volatile 
portions  of  petroleum,  but,  on  the  contrary,  is  more  readily  soluble  in 
boiling  amylic  alcohol  and  xylol,  from  which  solutions  it  separates 
in  an  amorphoses  form  on  cooling.  It  is  decomposed  at  230°  C, 
without  melting,  and  forms  by  heating  with  glacial  acetic  acid  a  white 
crystalline  acid  which  melts  at  54°  C,  and  is  readily  soluble  in  alcohol, 
ether  and  petroleum  (b.  p.  60°  C.)  This  acid  forms  sparingly  soluble 
barium,  lead  and  calcium  salts,  and  soluble  salts  with  the  alkalies. 
Further  experiments  could  not  be  made  as  only  a  small  amount  of 
material  was  at  hand,  and  by  the  present  method  of  conducting  the 
quinine  factories  the  cinchocerotin  is  no  longer  obtained. 
