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

    2/18 (page 1830)
    to be a. homogeneous substance. The most recent communication on the subject by the same author (Ann. Chim, Phys., 1911, [viii], 24, 134) includes a statement that anhydrous anthesterol has [°]D+75°4/. Cohen (Arch. Pharm., 1908, 246, 520) has con¬ sidered it probable that the anthesterol of Klobb is identical with lupeol, to which the doubtful formula C26H420 has been assigned. It would appear, however, from the discrepant and confusing statements above noted that the “ anthesterol ” of Klobb must have consisted of a mixture of substances, and confirmation of this view has been afforded by the results of the present investiga¬ tion. Fliickiger and Hanbury (“ Pharmacographia,” 1879, p. 386) could only obtain the bitter principle of the Roman chamomile in the form of a brown extract, which they state is apparently a glucoside, and the absence of an alkaloid was confirmed by them. In view of the existing deficiency of knowledge, it was deemed desirable to submit chamomile flowers to a more complete exam¬ ination, and the results of the present research are summarised at the end of this paper. Experimental. The material employed for this investigation consisted of the flower-heads of Anthemis nobilis, Linne, collected from plants grown in Belgium. Fifteen grams of the ground material were digested with Prollius’ fluid, and the resulting extract tested with the usual alkaloid reagents. The reactions thus obtained indicated the presence of an appreciable amount of an organic base. An examination of the flowers for the presence of an enzyme soluble in water gave a negative result. Twenty-five grams of the ground flowers were successively ex¬ tracted in a Soxhlet apparatus with various solvents, when the following amounts of extract, dried in a water-oven, were obtained: Petroleum (b. p. 35—50°) extracted Ether ,, Chloroform ,, Ethyl acetate ,, Alcohol ,, T07 grams 3-07 „ 0-08 „ 3-00 „ 2-08 „ 4-28 per cent. 12-28 0-32 „ 12-00 8-32 Total 9-30 grams = 37-20 per cent. For the purpose of a complete examination, 21 ‘09 kilograms of the ground material were thoroughly extracted by percolation with hot alcohol. After the removal of the greater part of the alcohol, 8'33 kilograms of a viscid, brownish-green extract were obtained.