Licence: In copyright
Credit: Chemical examination of Oenanthe crocata / by Frank Tutin. 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.
11/15 page 9
![the product obtained by heating it with alcoholic alkalis was only a neutral, viscid, undistillable mass. The chloroform extract of the resin amounted to 31'7 Gms., and formed an almost black resin, from which nothing definite could be obtained. The ethyl acetate and alcohol extracts amounted to 1’57 and 4'22 Gms. respectively. They were almost black, amorphous solids, from which nothing crystal- line could be isolated. Isolation of Cane Sugar. The original alcoholic extract of the plant, when kept for a few weeks, deposited a large amount of crystals. A quantity of it was stirred with alcohol, water being gradually added, until the liquid portion of the mixture was a fairly homo- geneous, thin syrup. The crude crystals were then collected on a filter and washed, first with dilute alcohol and subse- quently with ethyl acetate, after which they were dried. The material so obtained was found to be almost pure cane sugar, and the amount was equivalent to 3'8 per cent, of the weight of the dried plant. It was recrystallised from dilute alcohol, when, on heating somewhat rapidly, it melted at 188°. 01887 gave 0-2910 CO2 and 01115 H2O. C = 42-0; H = 6'5. C12H22O11 requires C=42-l; H=6’4 percent. A determination of the specific rotatory power gave the fol- lowing result :— 2 0003, made up to 20 C.c. with water, gave Un -f 13° 22' in a 2-Dcm. tube, whence [a]n + 66’8°. Since no cane sugar could be detected in the aqueous liquid (A), it is evident that this compound must have become in- verted during the steam distillation by the organic acids present. Physiological Tests. In order to ascertain the source of the poisonous properties of the QSnanthe root, a number of products obtained during the present investigation were kindly tested by Dr. H. H. Dale, director of the Wellcome Physiological Besearch Laboratories, to whom my best thanks may here be expressed. All the experiments were conducted with guinea-pigs, the preparations being administered per os. The aqueous liquid (A) and the chloroform and alcoholic extracte of the reein (B), when adminietered in dosesof 1 Gm., *](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22433120_0013.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
