192 
Recent  Literature  Relating  to  Pharmacy. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm^ 
April,  1901. 
results.  One  c.c.  thiosulphate  solution  will  equal  0-012685 
gramme  of  iodine.  The  difference  between  iodine  originally 
employed  and  the  unabsorbed  iodine  is  of  course  the  amount  of 
that  element  absorbed  by  the  fat,  and  the  number  of  grammes 
absorbed  by  1 00  grammes  of  fat  is  called  the  iodine  number. — (Dr. 
Laves,  Ap.  Zt.,  1901,  p.  30.)  H.  V.  A. 
FERMENTS  OF  THE  LEGUM IN  OSZE . 
The  work  of  the  ferments  of  sprouting  seeds  is  continued  by 
Bourquelot  and  Herissey  (J.  Ph.  et  Ch.,  1900,  357).  They  extracted 
the  ferments  from  sprouting  fcenugreek,  luzerne  and  scoparius 
seed  and  compared  the  action  of  same  on  starch  of  caroubier  (the 
seed  of  Ceratonia  siliqua)  and  on  potato  starch  with  that  of  diastase 
from  malt,  finding  it  totally  different. 
Diastase  hydrolyzes  potato  starch  so  completely  that  the  mix- 
ture no  longer  gives  the  iodine  reaction,  while  the  action  on  carou- 
bier starch  is  much  less  than  that  of  the  leguminous  ferment.  The 
latter  ferment,  called  seminase  by  the  authors,  on  the  other  hand, 
scarcely  affects  potato  starch,  but  completely  hydrolyzes  caroubier 
starch  (starch  of  the  horny  albumen). 
The  seminase  obtained  from  the  three  plants  mentioned  above 
is  practically  identical.  Whether  it  is  a  single  ferment  or  a  mix- 
ture is  yet  to  be  studied.  H.  V.  A. 
ANAGYRINE. 
The  seeds  of  Anagyris  fcetida,  a  papilionaceous  plant  of  Southern 
France  and  Algeria,  contain  an  alkaloid  which  was  at  first  thought 
to  be  identical  with  cytisin.  This  alkaloid  is  obtained  by  percola- 
tion of  seeds  with  60  per  cent,  alcohol  containing  acetic  acid, 
evaporation  of  solvent,  removal  of  fat  and  resin  by  treatment  with 
water  and  filtration  ;  precipitation  of  gum,  color,  etc.,  from  filtrate 
with  lead  acetate ;  and  chloroformic  extraction  of  alkaloid  from  the 
alkaline  filtrate.  Lastly,  the  chloroformic  extract  is  purified  by  frac- 
tional crystallization  of  the  alkaloids  and  their  platinic  chloride  and 
mercuric  chloride  compounds — this  complex  method  being  neces- 
sary to  separate  the  real  cytisin  from  the  peculiar  alkaloid  of 
anagyris — anagyrine.  Cytisin  is  CnH14N20,  anagyrine  is  C15H22N20, 
and  in  both  alkaloids  the  O  atom  is  neither  in  a  hydroxyl  nor  in  a 
ketone  nor  in  an  aldehyde  group. 
