PROPERTIES OF MONNINA POLYSTACHYA 
249 
Pills of yallhoy. 
Pulv. cort. monnin. 1 gramme, 3 decigrammes, 
Tragacanth, q. s. 
To be made into pills of 4 grains, to be taken at a dose. 
Injection. 
Cort. monnin. contus. 16 grammes, 
Aqua fluvial, 1000 " 
Boil in a close vessel for a quarter of an hour, or infuse for an 
hour, strain, divide into equal portions, and administer on 
the same day. 
It is not only as a medicinal agent that this article is worthy 
of attention: from its property of forming a lather with water, 
it is much used to wash clothes. At Huanaco it is employed 
to clean silver. It is also much esteemed as a w T ash for the 
hair, which it is said to cleanse and nourish. 
A chemical analysis of the monnina afforded me: 
A resinous substance soluble in ether. A resin soluble in 
alcohol. A peculiar principle, which I have called monni- 
nine, and an aromatic gum. 
Monninine is of a yellowish colour, uncry stall izable, unal- 
terable in the air, except that it becomes of a darker colour; 
transparent, of a vitreous lustre, readily pulverizable, taste at 
first somewhat bitter, but soon becoming so acrid, that it may 
be compared to that of euphorbium. A very small quantity 
is capable of forming a lather with a great excess of water. 
It is soluble in every proportion in water, alcohol, the acids 
and alkaline solutions, to which it gives a deep yellow colour. 
These solutions are transparent. It is not soluble in sulphuric 
ether, nor in the fixed and volatile oils. It changes the 
colour of tincture of iodine to a red. It forms a red solution 
with nitric acid, but the colour soon fades. It changes the 
colour of tincture of litmus to a beautiful green. It has not 
this effect on syrup of violets, on which it appears to exercise 
scarcely any action. It does not seem to neutralize the acids, 
which do not decompose it, except when they are pure; in 
which case, they deprive it of its property of making a lather 
VOL. II. — no. m. 32 
