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]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

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.

    5/20 (page 886)
    Experimental. 1. The Constituents of the Seeds of ITydnocarj)us Wightiana (Blum e). The seeds of Hydnocarpus Wightiana not being an article of com¬ merce, a quantity of them was obtained for us in India, and we have further assured ourselves of their genuineness. Immediately on their arrival, several of the seeds were crushed, brought into contact with water, and the mixture allowed to remain in a corked flask for some hours. As no hydrogen cyanide was developed, it was evident that they contained no cyanogenetic glucoside at the time of their examination by us, although such a substance may have existed in them at an earlier period (compare Power and Gornall, Trans., 1904, 85, 840). In order to obtain the fatty oil, the kernels, which represented 75 per cent, of the weight of the seeds, were subjected to powerful hydraulic pressure. This treatment afforded an amount of a fatty oil and of a “press-cake” equivalent, respectively, to 32-4 and 35 4 per cent, of the weight of the entire seeds. By completely extracting the total powdered seed with ether, 41*2 per cent, of oil was obtained. The Fatty Oil. The oil from the seeds of Hydnocarpus Wightiana, like true chaulmoogra oil (from Taraktogenos Kurzii, King), is, at the ordinary temperature, a soft solid, having a faintly yellow colour and a characteristic odour. It gave the following values : Melting point. Specific gravity . [a]D in chloroform Acid value. Saponification value Iodine value .. Expressed oil. 22—23° 0958 at 25° + 57-7° 3-8 207-0 101-3 Oil extracted by ether. 22—23° 0-959 at 25° + 56-2° 7-4 207-0 102-5 Hydrolysis of the Fatty Oil. One hundred grams of the oil were hydrolysed with alcoholic potassium hydroxide, the alcohol removed, and the residue mixed with sand, dried, and extracted with light petroleum. The latter yielded a small amount of an oily residue ; this was dissolved in warm alcohol, and on cooling the solution a substance separated, which, on recrys-