288 
Scientific  Abstracts. 
$  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
(      April,  1921. 
cipitate  is  formed.  If  this  final  mixture  is  evaporated  to  dryness, 
the  residue  dissolved  in  concentrated  sulphuric  acid  giving  a  red- 
violet  solution  which  changes  to  yellow  when  the  solution  is  poured 
into  water.    (From  The  Analyst,  Jan.,  1921.) 
Manganese  in  Foxglove  Leaves. — Burmann  has  asserted  that 
manganese  is  a  constant  constituent  in  Digitalis  purpurea,  but  is  not 
present  in  D.  ambigua  or  D.  lutea.  Webster  has  now  examined  a 
number  of  species  of  digitalis,  including  the  three  mentioned  above, 
and  has  found  manganese  in  all  of  them.  In  the  Leaves  of  D.  pur- 
purea, the  proportion  present  varies  from  0.94  to  0.12  Mgms.  in 
100  Gms.  of  dried  leaves.  (Ber.  d.  Deutsch.  Pharm.  Ges.,  30,  p. 
376,  through  The  Pharm.  Jour.  &  Pharmacist,  Dec.  18,  1920.) 
Chelerythrine. — Bauer  and  Hedinger  have  prepared  chelery- 
thrine  from  Sanquinaria  rhizomes  by  mixing  the  drug  with  milk  of 
lime,  drying  on  a  water  bath,  and  extracting  the  alkaloids  with  a 
mixture  of  equal  parts  of  ether  and  benzine.  From  this  solution 
they  were  removed  by  solution  of  citric  acid,  and,  after  the  addition 
of  ammonia,  transferred  to  benzene.  On  evaporation  of  the  ben- 
zene solution  the  total  alkaloids  are  obtained.  The  proportion  found 
varied  from  0.66  to  1.74  per  cent.  From  this  mixture  chelerythrine 
can  be  obtained  by  repeated  crystallization  from  alcohol.  It  is 
readily  soluble  in  chloroform  and  benzene,  less  readily  in  alcohol, 
ether,  acetone,  and  methyl  alcohol.  The  chloride  crystallizes  in 
yellow  needles  of  the  formula  C2iH17N04H20,  the  iodide  in  dark 
red  needles  •  oxalate,  reddish-yellow.  The  presence  of  a  methoxy 
group  could  not  be  detected.  (From  Archiv  d.  Pharm.,  vol.  258,  p. 
167,  through  Pharm.  Jour.  &  Pharmacist,  Dec.  11,  1920.) 
Presence  of  Hydrocyanic  Acid  in  Linseed  Cakes  :  E.  Kohn- 
Abrest  {Ann.  Falsif.,  1920,  13,  482-487). — The  cyanogenetic  glu- 
coside  occurring  in  linseed  is  concentrated  in  the  pressed  cake  ob- 
tained when- the  oil  is  expressed,  but  the  quantity  in  the  cake  appears 
to  depend  to  some  extent  on  the  method'  of  manufacture.    Much  of 
