The constituents of Gloriosa superba / by Hubert William Bentley Clewer, Stanley Jospeh Green and Frak Tutin.

  • Clewer, Hubert W. B.
Date:
1915.]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The constituents of Gloriosa superba / by Hubert William Bentley Clewer, Stanley Jospeh Green and Frak Tutin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    1/12
    XCI.—The Constituents of Gloriosa superba. By Hubert William Bentley Clewer, Stanley Joseph Green and Frank Tutin. The climbing, liliaceous plant, Gloriosa superba, Linn., occurs throughout India and Ceylon, and is there common on hedges during the rainy season. It is known by a large number ol vernacular names, and in English as the “ Superb Lily.” The flowers are used by the Hindus in the worship of Siva and the Lingam, whilst the roots, which form elongated tubers, are reputed to possess medicinal properties, and were included by the Sanskrit writers in the seven minor poisons of India (Fharmacof/ra-phia Indlca, 1893, III, 480). The tubers are stated to be used for a variety of medicinal purposes, but chiefly for promoting labour pains and procuring abortion. The only examination of the drug in question which appears hitherto to have been made was conducted by Warden {lad. Med. Gaz., 1880, 15, 253; 1881, 16, 138), who states that the root con¬ tains a neutral, bitter principle, named “superbine,” three resins, a fluorescent principle, and salicylic acid. “Superbine was con¬ sidered to be either identical with, or closely allied to, the bitter principle of squill, and as little as 0'0107 gram of it proved fatal to a full-grown cat. Single determinations of the carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen content gave results indicating the formula C-.oH^Oj-No, which, however, was put forward with reserve. The present investigation has shown that the bitterness of Gloriosa tubers is due to the alkaloid, colchicine, which has hitherto been known to occur only in Colchicum. Among other compounds which have now been isolated from Gloriosa, 2-hydroxy-b- methoxybenzoic acid may be mentioned, as this substance has not hitherto been known. A summary of the results obtained will be found at the end of this paper. Experimental. The material employed for this investigation consisted of the tubers of Gloriosa superba, Linn., which had been specially collected in Ceylon, through the kindness of Mr. T. Petch, of the Botanical Gardens, Paradeniya. Ten grams of the dried and ground material were digested with Prollius’ fluid, and the resulting extract was tested with the usual alkaloid reagents, when reactions were obtained indicating the presence of a considerable amount of alkaloid.
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3