i88 
Recent  Literature  Relating  to  Pharmacy.  { 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
April,  1901. 
CINCHONA  CULTURE  IN  INDIA  AND  JAVA. 
Professor  Verne,  who  was  sent  by  the  French  Minister  of  Instruc- 
tion to  investigate  the  cinchona  culture,  mentions  the  following 
interesting  facts  in  his  report :  The  Indian  plantations  are  found 
about  270  north  latitude,  3,600  feet  high,  in  a  territory  having 
temperature  ranging  between  280  and  85 0  F.  The  mechanical 
labor  is  performed  by  the  natives,  who  receive  from  $1  to  $1.70 
per  month,  without  food,  according  to  age  and  sex.  The  favorite 
species  of  cinchona  is  the  C.  ledgeriana.  The  plants  are  raised  on 
mossy  ground,  sheltered  from  the  winds  on  one  side  by  a  hill  and 
on  the  other  side  by  thickets  of  bamboo,  the  young  shoots  being 
particularly  susceptible  to  sudden  changes  of  temperature.  By  the 
third  year  after  planting,  the  tree  is  sufficiently  grown  to  permit 
the  removal  of  bark,  which  grows  on  again  within  three  years 
without  recourse  to  mossing  operation.  The  same  system  is  in 
vogue  in  Java,  where,  however,  the  variety  of  cinchona  is  not  the 
English  C.  ledgeriana  (Howard's),  but  the  C.  ledgeriana  of  Moen,  the 
latter  being  found  to  yield  9  per  cent,  of  quinine ;  or,  if  only  the 
trunk  bark  about  a  metre  above  the  ground  is  chosen,  it  yields  14 
per  cent,  of  quinine.  On  the  other  hand,  the  English  C.  ledgeriana 
assays  on  an  average  4  per  cent.  In  Java  the  cultivation  of  the 
latter  variety  is  abandoned  ;  while  C.  succirubra  planting  is  diminish- 
ing. In  both  the  English  and  Javanese  plantations  a  very  large 
source  of  profit  is  the  manufacture  of  quinine  on  the  spot  from 
small  and  defective  pieces  of  bark,  unfit  for  shipment.  Particularly 
striking  is  the  method  of  quinine  extraction  as  practiced  in  Java, 
it  simply  consisting  of  treating  the  powdered  bark  with  a  5  per 
cent,  solution  of  caustic  soda,  heated  to  500  C,  throwing  this 
mechanically  agitated  mass  into  a  reservoir  containing  Java  petro- 
leum of  specific  gravity  -999,  removing  the  petrolic  solution  of 
alkaloids  by  mechanical  devices  into  a  warm  reservoir,  into  which 
is  poured  water  acidulated  with  sulphuric  acid.  This  watery  layer 
is  removed,  evaporated  and  from  the  concentrated  solution  the 
quinine  sulphate  separates  by  crystallization,  which  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  recrystallize,  since  it  contains  only  one-half  of  1  per  cent,  of 
cinchonine.  Of  such  quinine  50,000  kilogrammes  are  exported 
annually  to  the  United  States.  The  special  reason  of  the  success 
of  this  quinine  manufacture  is  due  to  the  exceedingly  clever  me- 
chanical devices  used  in  the  extraction. — {jf.de  Ph.  et  Ch.}  1901, 
page  5.) 
H.  V.  A. 
