EXAMINATION  OF  CUBEBS. 
223 
swer  to  the  query  for  1869  of  the  Hagen-Bucholz'sche  Stiftung. 
The  author  has  used  for  his  experiments,  1st,  10  pounds  fresh 
cubebs,  scarcely  one  year  old ;  2d,  6  pounds  four  to  five  years 
old  ;  3d,  10  pounds  so-called  cubeb  stems,  that  is  the  rachis  with 
which  commercial  cubebs  are  always  mixed ;  4th,  about  1  pound 
of  the  sediment,  which  occurs  in  ethereal  extract  (oleoresin)  of 
cubebs. 
4500  grm.  of  the  powdered  fresh  cubebs,  containing  4-75  hy- 
groscopic water  (ascertained  by  drying  for  twenty-eight  days 
over  oil  of  vitriol,)  were  distilled  with  water  previously  distilled 
and  absolutely  free  from  ammonia ;  after  nine  distillations  (30 
pounds  distillate  each),  volatile  oil  ceased  to  come  over  ;  14-0  per 
cent,  of  oil  were  obtained,  which  was  found  to  be  soluble  in  12820 
parts  water.  The  decoction  contained  mucilage  (precipitable  by 
baryta)  albumen,  starch  (estimated  from  the  dextrin  and  sugar 
formed  by  boiling  with  acids),  a  little  resin  (brown,  bitter,  identi- 
cal with  the  resin  obtained  by  alcohol),  brown  coloring  matter 
(precipitated  by  hydrated  alumina),  red  brown  extractive  and 
salts  ;  sugar  was  not  present. 
The  cubebs,  exhausted  by  boiling  water,  were  dried  and  treated 
with  92  per  cent,  alcohol ;  the  alcoholic  extract  was  washed  with 
water  and  separated  on  standing  into  a  dark  green  oily  liquid, 
and  a  more  solid  red  brown  resinous  mass,  from  which  by  dis- 
tillation with  water  9*27  grm.  volatile  oil  of  a  yellowish  green 
color  was  obtained.  The  green  fixed  oil  was  separated  from  the 
resin  by  repeated  solution  in  hot  diluted  alcohol ;  the  resin  was 
dissolved  in  diluted  potassa  solution,  which  left  cubebin,  obtaina- 
ble in  crystals  by  the  spontaneous  evaporation  of  its  alcoholic 
solution.  The  resin  was  precipitated  from  its  alkaline  solution 
by  muriatic  acid,  the  precipitate  digested  with  ammonia,  the 
solution  precipitated  by  chloride  of  calcium,  and  this  precipitate 
decomposed  by  muriatic  acid,  yields  the  acid  resin  (Bernatzik's 
cubebic  acid).  The  ammoniacal  mother  liquid,  on  being  neutral- 
ized, yielded  a  neutral  resin,  identical  with  that  left  undissolved 
by  the  ammonia. 
The  exhausted  cubebs  were  dried  and  treated  with  ether, 
which  took  up  -511  per  cent,  green  yellow  fat.  The  cubebs  now 
yielded  nothing  to  petroleum  ether,  bisulphide  of  carbon,  benzine 
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