Am  Jour.  Pharm 
June,  i£C®. 
Chestnut  Leaves, 
293 
The  leaves  contain  a  considerable  amount  of  tannin  and  extractive 
cnatter.  The  powder  cannot  be  percolated  alone  on  account  of  swell- 
ing when  water  or  alcohol  is  added.  A  fluid  extract  is  made  by 
srepeatedly  digesting  the  leaves  in  water  and  expressing  the  juice,  adding 
iglycerin  and  sugar  and  evaporating,  as  recommended  by  Prof.  J.  M. 
Mai-scli  (''American  Journal  of  Pharmacy,"  Dec,  1871).  A  tincture 
«made  in  the  proportion  of  two  ounces  of  the  leaves  to  a  pint  of  diluted 
.alcohol  is  also  frequently  used. 
Chestnut  leaves  were  first  brought  to  the  notice  of  the  medical  pro- 
fession by  Mr.  Geo.  C.  Close,  in  the  year  1862,  but  were  used  by 
some  physicians  a?id  in  domestic  practice  previous  to  that  time.  They 
have  been  used  with  good  success  as  a  remedy  for  whooping  cough  ; 
appear  to  control  the  spasms  and  often  cause  their  suspension  in  a  few 
days.  The  fluid  extract  is  probably  the  best  preparation  to  use,  as  it 
contains  the  drug  in  a  concentrated  form  and  is  not  unpleasant  to  take. 
The  tincture  may  also  be  used,  but  the  objection  to  it  is  the  large  dose 
required  and  the  amount  of  alcohol  contained  therein. 
For  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  some  of  the  constituents  of  the 
leaves  they  were  subjected  to  the  following  experiments  : 
The  infusion  possessed  an  astringent  taste,  producing  with  ferric 
chloride  a  greenish-black  precipitate,  and  a  copious  precipitate  with 
solution  of  gelatiti,  showing  the  presence  of  tannin.  The  infusion 
was  deprived  of  coloring  matter,  tannin,  etc.,  with  solution  of  subace- 
tate  of  lead,  filtering,  and  separating  lead  with  sulphydric  acid.  The 
liquid  appears  to  be  free  from  sugar.  The  cold  infusion  showed  the 
presence  of  albumen  when  heated,  and  by  the  precipitate  produced  with 
solution  of  mercuric  chloride.  Alcohol  precipitated  gum,  soluble  in 
excess  of  water,  and  this  solution  was  not  precipitated  with  ferric  chlo 
ride  or  sodium  borate. 
Ten  grams  of  the  ground  leaves  were  boiled  with  successive  por- 
tions of  water  until  the  soluble  parts  were  all  dissolved,  the  different 
solutions  mixed,  filtered  and  treated  with  solution  of  gelatin  until  it 
ceased  to  afford  a  precipitate.  This  was  separated  by  filtration,  washed, 
dried  and  weighed;  the  result  was  1*70  gram,  equal  to  about  0'9  gram 
of  tannin.  A  repetition  of  this  experiment  gave  nearly  the  same  result. 
This  experiment  shows  9  per  cent,  of  tannin  present  in  chestnut  leaves. 
After  removing  the  tannin  from  the  infusion  by  means  of  fresh  hide 
the  filtrate  was  not  affected  by  ferric  chloride,  and  was,  therefore,  free 
from  gallic  acid. 
