The constituents of the fruit of Ecballium elaterium / by Frederick B. Power and Charles W. Moore.

  • Frederick Belding Power
Date:
[1909]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: The constituents of the fruit of Ecballium elaterium / by Frederick B. Power and Charles W. Moore. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    By Frederick Bedding Power and Charles Watson Moore. In a recent communication by the authors, entitled “ Chemical Examination of Elaterium and the Characters of Elaterin ” (Pharm. J., 1909, [iv], 29, 501), it was shown that the product known and officially recognised as “ elaterin ” is not homogeneous, but that it con- sists, to the extent of 60—80 per cent., of a crystalline substance which is completely devoid of the specific physiological action attributed to elaterin, and may be separated by a process of fractional crystallisation. This crystalline substance, which is much more highly laevorotatory and has a higher melting point than the crude elaterin, is accompanied in the latter by a compound of apparently the same percentage composition, but which possesses a very high degree of physiological activity and is dextrorotatory. In view of the fact that the elaterium from which the above- mentioned “ elaterin ” is obtained represents only the material which is deposited from the juice of the fruit of Echallium Elaterium^ it appeared desirable that the entire fresh fruit should be subjected to a chemical examination in order to ascertain the nature of all its constituents. In conducting this investigation, special consideration has been given to the statement of Berg {Bull. Soc. chim., 1897, [iii], 17, 85) that elaterin does not pre-exist in the fruits of Ecballium, but that it is formed, after the expression of the juice, by the action of a ferment on an amorphous glucoside. The results which have now been obtained, with the deductions from them, are summarised at the end of this paper. Experimental. The material employed in this investigation consisted of the fresh, nearly ripe fruits of Ecballium Elaterium, A. Richard, which were very kindly supplied to us by Messrs. W. Ransom & Son, of Hitchin. ihey were collected during the latter part of August. Eeparation of an Enzyme. ^ It ha.s been indicated by Berg i^oc. cit.) that the juice of the fruit of Bcballium contains an enzyme, or possibly a mixture of enzymes, which is capable of hydrolysing amygdalin, saccharose, and starch, and was designated by him as elaterase. In order to obtain this substance, the expressed juice from 3 kilograms of the fruit, amount-