Chemical examination of the fruit of Brucea antidysenterica / by Frederick B. Power and Arthur H. Salway.

  • Frederick Belding Power
Date:
[1907]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Chemical examination of the fruit of Brucea antidysenterica / by Frederick B. Power and Arthur H. Salway. 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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    The fatty oil was then brought into a flask and a current of steam passed through it, but the distillate contained neither volatile acid nor essential oil. After separating the water from the fatty oil, the latter was mixed with alcohol and hydrolyzed by boihng for a short time with an alcohohc solution of potassium hydroxide (120 Gm). The greater portion of the alcohol was then removed, the strongly alkaline, semi-sohd product of liydrolysis mixed intimately with clean sand, the mixture thoroughly dried on a water bath, and finally extracted in a Soxhlet apparatus with Light petroleum. Isolation of a Phytosterol, C20H34O. The petroleum extract was of a bright yellow colour, and, after removing the solvent, a quantity (1.5 Gm.) of a yellow solid was obtained. This was dissolved in a mixture of ethyl acetate and alcohol containing a httle water, when a substance separated in colourless, glistening plates, which, after several crystalhzations, melted at 135-136° C. This substance, when dissolved in chloro- form, gave on the addition of a little acetic anhydride and a drop of concentrated sulphuric acid the colour reaction character- istic of the phytosteroLs. It was analysed, with the following result ^— 0‘3168, when heated at 110° C., lost 0‘0172 H2O. H20=5‘4. 0 1004 of anhydrous substance gave 0 3030 CO2 and0T083 H2O. C=82-3; H=12 0 C20H34O requires C=82’8; H=ll-7 per cent. C2oH340,H20 requires H20=6 8 per cent. This substance is thus seen to be a phytosterol. It is appa- rently identical with the compound of the same empirical formula which had previously been isolated from the fatty oil of the fruit of Britcea smnatrana {loc. cit.). The mother liquors from the first crystalhzation of the phytosterol afforded, .as is usually the ca.se, a small quantity of a dee]) yellow, viscid liquid. Acids Obtained by the Hydrolysis of the Fatty Oil. Having removed the neutral constituents of the hydrolyzed oil, the residual mixture of potassium salts and sand was repeatedly extraeted with hot water, and the aqueous, strongly alkaline solution acidified with sulphuric acid, when the hberated fatty acid separated on the surface of the liquid as a partially sohd V