ON  SAPONINE  AND  SENEGINE. 
from  the  officinal  extract,  by  precipitating  with  sugar  of  lead, 
filtering,  washing,  and  decomposing  the  precipitate  with  sulphu- 
retted hydrogen,  filtering,  evaporating,  taking  up  in  hot  alcohol, 
evaporating,  agitating  with  ether,  dissolving  the  portion  not  taken 
up  by  ether  in  water,  precipitating  with  diacetate  of  lead,  filter- 
ing, washing,  diffusing  the  precipitate  in  water,  decomposing  by 
sulphuretted  hydrogen,  filtering,  evaporating,  taking  up  in  boil- 
ing alcohol,  and  allowing  to  cool. 
That  which  I  obtained  agreed  considerably  in  its  chemical  be- 
haviour and  external  properties  with  Quevenne's  senegine,  but  I 
have  not  succeeded  in  obtaining  this  body  perfectly  white  ;  the 
powder  had  always  a  grey,  yellowish  shade,  resembling  quertan- 
nic  acid,  and  was  never  obtained  quite  free  of  inorganic  constit- 
uents. Only  by  repeated  solution  in  strong  hot  alcohol,  and 
cooling,  by  which  the  chief  part  of  these  bodies  separates,  I  re- 
duced them  to  1  per  cent. 
Bussey's  saponine  is  prepared  in  a  very  simple  way,  by  boil- 
ing the  incised  root  with  alcohol  of  85  per  cent.,  and  hot  fil- 
tration and  cooling,  whereby  the  saponine  separates.  The  sub- 
stance obtained  was  quite  white,  but  likewise  not  completely  free 
from  ash,  but  still  the  incombustible  portion  was  less  than  in  the 
mass  obtained  from  the  extract  of  senega. 
Both  substances  possessed  all  the  properties  everywhere  as- 
cribed to  them — slight  solubility  in  cold,  and  greater  in  hot 
water;  frothing  of  their  solutions;  solubility  in  alcohol,  which 
is  greater  in  diluted  than  in  anhydrous  alcohol,  and  greater  in 
hot  than  in  cold  alcohol ;  insolubility  in  ether,  and  absence  of 
definite  form.  Taste  at  the  commencement  somewhat  sweet,  but 
afterwards  slightly  pungent  and  bitterish. 
By  the  combustion  of  these  bodies  I  obtained  results  from 
which  I  calculate  the  formulae  for  senegine,  C30  II21  O30  and  for 
saponine  C36  H28  024  It  will  be  seen  that  there  is  a  considera- 
ble difference  in  the  quantity  of  water  contained  in  them. 
I  believe  that  I  shall  succeed  in  showing  that  the  bitter  prin- 
ciples of  these  roots  are  one  and  the  same,  or,  at  least,  exhibited 
no  greater  difference  than  is  expressed  by  the  above  analyses. 
Fremy  produced  by  the  action  of  alkalies  or  diluted  acids  on 
Bussey's  saponine,  a  new  acid,  which  he  termed  gesculinic  acid, 
because  it  could  be  prepared  from  a  bitter  substance  existing  in 
horse  chestnuts. 
