The constituents of the flowers of Matricaria chamomilla / by Frederick Belding Power and Henry Browning, Jun.

  • Power, Frederick B. (Frederick Belding), 1853-1927
Date:
1914.]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The constituents of the flowers of Matricaria chamomilla / by Frederick Belding Power and Henry Browning, Jun. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of only the common constituents of plants, or, in addition thereto, the very indefinite products termed “ anthemic acid” and “ anthemidin,” which need not be further considered here. Klobb, Gamier, and Ehrwein (Bull. Soc. chim., 1910, *[iv], 7, 946) isolated from the flowers of Matricaria a hydrocarbon (m. p. 52—54°), to which they assigned the formula C29H60. Klobb (Ann. chim. Phys., 1911, '[viii], 24, 410) subsequently obtained from the same source a product melting at 120—131°, which gave the colour reaction of the phytosterols, and was regarded by him as a mixture of substances of this class. It was stated to yield an acetylated product, melting at 150—175°, from which two bromo-derivatives, melting at 158—165° and 115—118° respec¬ tively, were obtained. Inasmuch as the present authors have recently investigated the constituents of the flowers of Anthemis nobilis (this vol., p. 1829), it was deemed of interest, for the purpose of comparison, also to subject the flowers of Matricaria Chamomilla to a complete chemical examination. The results of the present research are summarised at the end of this paper. Experimental. The material employed for this investigation consisted of a good quality of commercial “ German Chamomile Flowers ” from Matricaria Chamomilla, Linne. Fifteen grams of the ground material were extracted with Prollius’ fluid, and the resulting product tested with the usual alkaloid reagents, but only very slight reactions were obtained. Twenty grams of the ground material were successively extracted with various solvents in a Soxhlet apparatus, when the following amounts of extract, dried in a water-oven, were obtained : Petroleum (b. p. 35—50°) extracted 0-63 gram Ether yy 0-98 Chloroform yy 0-20 ,, Ethyl acetate yy 1-02 ,, Alcohol yy 3-10 „ 315 4- 90 1-00 5- 10 15-50 per cent. y y y y y y 5 y y y y y yy y y Total 5-93 grams = 29-65 per cent. For the purpose of a complete examination, 22'23 kilograms of the ground flowers were completely extracted with hot alcohol, when, after the removal of the greater part of the solvent, 8*53 kilograms of a soft, green extract were obtained. The entire amount of the alcoholic extract was mixed with a little water and distilled in a current of steam, when 23 grams of an essential oil were obtained, which possessed the characteristic, deep blue colour. The oil distilled over a wide range of tempera-