!02 SELECTED ARTICLES. 
ART. XXX. — ON KINOVIC BITTER. By L. A. Buchner, Jr. 
I received from Dr. Winckler of Zwingenberg, some of 
the kinovic bitter lately discovered by him, with a request 
that I would make an elementary analysis of it. This I have 
been glad to undertake on many accounts, and proceed to 
state the results of my experiments, with a short prefatory 
synopsis of Dr. Winckler's researches. 
This learned chemist, having commenced a series of phar- 
macological experiments on the cinchonas, repeated the nu- 
merous chemical investigations of other experimenters, and 
added many new and important observations. Thus, in his 
experiments on crown bark, he found by treating this bark 
with ether, and dissolving the product in alcohol, that it con- 
tained another crystalline substance besides quinia. This 
new substance had a much more bitter taste than even quinia, 
and was endowed with widely different properties. He after- 
wards discovered the same substance in the new bark, (quina 
nova) the origin of which is almost unknown to us, but which 
can be readily distinguished from the true barks by its want 
of action on tartar emetic and on tincture of galls.* This 
bark had already been analyzed by MM. Pelletier and 
Caventou, who discovered a peculiar acid in it, the kinovic, 
which was also obtained by Mr. Winckler, but the bitter 
principle above alluded to, which is called by the discoverer, 
kinovic bitter, appears to have escaped them. 
It may be procured by several modes, either by exhausting 
the bark by alcohol, heating the alcoholic extract with water 
to remove the kinovic acid, redissolving the residue in alco- 
* All that is known respecting it, is, that it comes from Surinam, 
whence it has been termed quina nova Surinamensis Hayne and Von 
Bergen are of opinion that it is afforded by the C. oblongifolia ; Martius 
supposes that it is furnished by the Portlandia grandijlora, while Geigeu 
thinks it probable that it is the product of the Exostemma angustifolia. 
