62 
Chemistry  of  Ipecacuanha. 
( Am.  .Jour.  I'harm. 
I    February,  1901. 
one-half  times  its  weight  of  lime,  then  percolating  the  mixture  with 
hot  ether  in  the  proportion  of  I  litre  of  ether  to  100  grammes  of  the 
extract.  That  ethereal  solution  was  then  shaken  with  sufficient 
weak  hydrochloric  acid  to  form  a  salt  and,  after  separating  the 
ether,  the  base  was  precipitated  from  the  aqueous  solution  by  am- 
monia. By  careful  evaporation  of  an  aqueous  solution  of  the  hydro- 
chloride the  salt  was  obtained  in  a  crystalline  form.  That  result — 
contrary  to  the  experience  of  Lefort  and  others,  that  all  the  salts  of 
emetine  were  uncrystallizable — enabled  Glenard,  by  repeated  crys- 
tallization, to  prepare  a  product  of  greater  purity  than  had  hitherto 
been  obtained.  Analysis  of  the  purified  base  gave  results  very  dif- 
ferent from  those  obtained  by  Dumas,  as  shown  below: 
Glenard.  Durnas. 
C                                                               72-43    72-o8  64-57 
H  8-64     8-59  4-30 
N  5-28     5-42  777 
O   .  13-65    13-91  22-95 
ioo-     100-  99-59 
Glenard's  data  leading  to  the  formula  C15H2,N02  were  further  con- 
firmed  by  the  analysis  of  the  crystalline  hydrochloride. 
Calculated  for 
Found.  C15Ho2NOo,HCl. 
C  63-00  63-26 
H  8-15  8-o8 
N  4-75  4-92 
O  .11*64  11-24 
CI  12-46  12-47 
From  these  results  Glenard  was  led  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
substance  analyzed  by  Dumas, as  well  as  that  subsequently  obtained 
by  Lefort,  could  not  have  been  sufficiently  purified. 
As  a  result  of  the  question  raised  by  Glenard  as  to  the  purity  and 
individuality  of  the  substance  obtained  by  previous  experimenters, 
a  further  paper  was  published  by  Lefort  and  Wurtz1  in  which  they 
suggested  a  method  of  preparing  emetine  by  mixing  an  aqueous 
solution  of  the  alcoholic  extract  of  ipecacuanha  with  a  saturated 
solution  of  potassium  nitrate.  The  washed  precipitate  of  the  nitrate 
which  required  ioo  parts  of  water  for  solution  was  dissolved  in  hot 
^"Memoire  sur  la  Preparation  et  la  Composition  de  rEmetine,"  Ann. 
Chim.  Pkys.,  5,  VIII,  277. 
