The constituents of the seeds of Hydnocarpus wightiana, Blume, and of Hydnocarpus anthelmintica, Pierre / by Frederick B. Power and Marmaduke Barrowcliff.

Frederick Belding Power

Date:: [1905]

Credit: The constituents of the seeds of Hydnocarpus wightiana, Blume, and of Hydnocarpus anthelmintica, Pierre / by Frederick B. Power and Marmaduke Barrowcliff. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$grouping; they are also characterised by their optical activity. One of these acids was isolated in a pure state, was shown to have the formula Ci8H3202, and was designated chaulmoogric acid (compare Power and Gornall, Trans., 1904, 85, 851). The fatty oils from the seeds of two species of Hydnocarpus, namely, H. Wightiana (Blume) and H. antlielmintica (Pierre), which belong to the same natural order as Tarahtogenos, have long been used in Western India and in China respectively for the same medicinal purposes for which chaulmoogra oil is employed. Hydnocarpus Wightiana (Blume) is the designation of a tree indigenous to the Western Peninsula of India, from South Concan to Travancore. The oil from the seeds has been brought to the notice of Europeans as a substitute for chaulmoogra oil, and has been used in the Bombay Presidency with satisfactory results. The seeds are not an article of commerce. Hydnocarpus antlielmintica (Pierre) is a tree indigenous to Siam, the seeds of which are exported to China under the name of “Lukrabo,” and are known in the latter country as “ Ta-fung-tsze ” (compare Pharmacographia Indica, Vol. I, pp. 146, 148, and Pharm. J., 1900, 64, 522). In view of the interesting facts elicited by the investigation of chaulmoogra seeds {loc. cit.) and the considerations referred to, it seemed desirable that the seeds of the above-mentioned two species of Hydnocarpus should also be chemically examined, more especially with regard to the constituents of their fatty oils, and the present com¬ munication embodies the results which have been obtained. „ It may be briefly stated that the fatty oils from the seeds of H. Wightiana (Blume) and of II. antlielmintica (Pierre) very closely resemble chaulmoogra oil both in their physical characters and in their chemical composition. The acids obtained from the respective Hydnocarpus oils consist chiefly of chaulmoogric acid and a lower homologue of the same series, the latter having been isolated from both oils and now also from chaulmoogra oil. This new acid has the formula C18H2802, and is designated hydnocarpic acid. Hydnocarpic acid crystallises from alcohol in glistening leaflets, melts at 60°, and has [a]D -l- 68° in chloroform solution. Like chaulmoogric acid, it contains only one etliylenic linking, and there¬ fore, in consideration of its formula Ci6H2802(CwH2W_402), must possess an alicyclic grouping. The seeds of the two species of Hydnocarpus, like chaulmoogra seeds, contain smaller amounts of other substances, but these are of minor interest as compared with that attaching to chaulmoogric and hydnocarpic acids, and the record of their identification will be found in the experimental section of the paper.$