6o 
C lie  mis  try  of  Ipecacuanha. 
/Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I    February,  1901. 
better  knowledge  was  requisite  as  to  its  components,  and  of  its 
actual  behavior  to  the  official  drug  as  a  therapeutic  agent.  Lefort,1 
in  order  to  solve  that  problem,  and  with  the  view  of  definitely  settling 
the  question  whether  the  ipecacuanha  of  New  Granada  could  be  sub- 
stituted for  the  official  drug,  made  a  comparative  examination  of  the 
two  kinds  by  determining  the  amount  of  alkaloid  contained  in 
them. 
Lefort  had  recourse  to  the  method  suggested  by  the  observations  of 
Pelletier  and  Dumas  that  the  alkaloid  of  ipecacuanha  formed  with 
tannin  a  compound  characterized  by  its  very  sparing  solubility  in 
water.  The  powdered  drug  was  extracted  by  strong  and  weak 
alcohol  successively;  the  alcoholic  liquor  evaporated  to  a  syrup  and 
the  residue  mixed  with  a  large  quantity  of  water.  Tannin  in  slight 
excess  was  then  added  to  the  filtered  liquid  and  the  precipitate  so 
produced  well  washed,  dried  and  weighed.  In  that  way  Lefort 
arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  the  ipecacuanha  of  New  Granada  con- 
tained rather  less  alkaloid  than  that  of  Brazil,  the  relative  amounts 
ot  tannate  obtained  being  1-34  and  1-44  percent.  Another  method 
adopted  for  comparing  the  two  kinds  of  ipecacuanha  as  to  their  con- 
tents in  alkaloid  was  based  on  the  sparing  solubility  of  the  nitrate 
of  the  base  in  water.  The  results  thus  obtained  were  very  similar, 
so  far  as  the  amount  of  alkaloid  was  concerned  ;  but  Lefort  too 
readily  assumed  the  chemical  identity  of  the  basic  constituents  of 
the  two  different  kinds  of  ipecacuanha.  In  a  subsequent  memoir, 
published  during  the  same  year,  Lefort  gave  the  results  of  a  more 
particular  study  of  the  properties  and  composition  of  the 
alkaloid  obtained  from  ipecacuanha.2  The  method  then  adopted 
for  its  extraction  consisted  in  treating  the  syrupy  residue  of  an 
alcoholic  extract  with  caustic  potash  and  chloroform.  A  product 
was  obtained  from  the  chloroform  solution  consisting  chiefly  of  a 
base  mixed  with  a  resinous  substance.  These  were  separated  by 
treatment  with  a  very  dilute  acid,  and,  by  adding  to  the  clear  solu- 
tion just  enough  ammonia,  the  base  was  precipitated  almost  free 
from  the  resinous  substance,  the  last  portion  of  which  was  removed 
by  digesting  the  washed  and  dried  precipitate  with  ether.  The 
base  thus  obtained  was  a  very  light  powder  of  a  white  or  gray 
xJourn.  de  Pharm.  et  de  Chimie,  4,  IX,  167. 
"-Journ.  de  Pharm.  et  de  Chimie,  4,  IX,  241. 
