ON  SAPONINE  AND  SENEGINE. 
43 
machinery  for  separating  the  fibre  would  greatly  facilitate  ope- 
rations, while  the  expenses  of  freight  might  be  diminished  by 
compression,  or,  as  suggested,  by  packing  the  material  as  dun- 
nage, and  the  cheapness  of  labor,  as  of  everything  else  in  many 
of  these  countries,  would  enable  material  for  paper-making  to  be 
brought  here  in  great  abundance,  and  at  a  sufficiently  cheap 
rate,  if  ordinary  pains  were  taken  by  the  consumers  in  Europe 
to  encourage  the  planter  or  colonist  of  a  distant  region — Lon- 
don Pharm.  Journ.,  from  Journal  of  the  Society  of  Arts. 
East  India  House,  May  3d,  1824. 
ON  SAPONINE  AND  SENEGINE. 
By  P.  A.  Bolley. 
Bley  and  Bussey  have  found  in  the  root  of  Gypsophylla  stra- 
ihium  the  so-called  Levantine  soap-root,  a  peculiar  vegetable 
principle,  which  the  former  termed  struthiin,  and  the  latter  sapo- 
nine.  In  so  far  as  an  assumption  may  be  hazarded,  it  is  the 
same  substance  which  has  been  previously  found  in  Saponaria 
officinalis.  Bussey  has  ascertained  the  composition  of  this  sub- 
stance. The  senegine  discovered  by  Gehlen,  a  bitter  substance 
obtained  from  the  root  of  Polygala  senega,  has  been  closely  ex- 
amined by  Quevenne,  and  the  elementary  analysis  known  was 
performed  by  this  chemist. 
The  physical  and  chemical  properties  of  both  substances  are 
so  analogous  that  the  subject  excited  Quevenne's  attention,  but 
a  comparison  of  some  reactions  which  he  undertook  led  him  to 
the  conclusion  that  it  was  quite  a  different  ho&y.  At  the  most, 
his  conclusion  was  supported  by  the  elementary  analysis  of  sapo- 
nine  made  by  Bussey,  and  by  that  made  by  himself  of  sene- 
gine. The  principal  difference  should  be  found  in  an  important 
distinction  in  their  behaviour  towards  concentrated  muriatic 
acid. 
According  to  Bussey,  saponine  contains  51  per  cent,  of  car- 
bon, 7.4  per  cent,  of  hydrogen  ;  and  senegine,  according  to 
Quevenne,  55.704  per  cent,  of  carbon,  and  7.529  per.  cent,  of 
hydrogen. 
I  have  prepared  Senegine  according  to  Quevenne's  process 
