Volume 1
Pharmacographia indica : a history of the principal drugs of vegetable origin met with in British India / by William Dymock , C.J.H. Warden, and David Hooper.
- William Dymock
- Date:
- 1890-1893
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Pharmacographia indica : a history of the principal drugs of vegetable origin met with in British India / by William Dymock , C.J.H. Warden, and David Hooper. Source: Wellcome Collection.
83/632 page 61
![Aqueous residue C—The filtered solution was rendered alkaline with ammonia and agitated with ch]oroform-ether} brownish flocks separated. The separated chloroform-ether left on spontaneous evaporation a transparent yellowish varnish- like residue. In order to purify this extract it was dissolved in dilute acetic acid in which, with the exception of a few flocks it was wholly soluble. The filtered solution was agitated with chloroform several times; finally the liquid was rendered alkaline and again agitated with chloroform. On separating and evaporating off the chloroform, a faintly yellowish trans- parent residue was left; this residue was practically insoluble in water : it was easily dissolved by alcohol, and also soluble in ether, but the solutions did not crystallize on slow evaporation. The alcoholic solution was bitter; it did not exhibit fluorescence. In dilute acids, especially tartaric acid, the extract was soluble, the resulting solutions being bitter. With nitric, hydrochloric, sulphuric, acetic, and tartaric acids no crystalline compounds could be obtained. From an acid solution alkalies precipitated white flocks, which were redissolved by acids. An acid solution responded to all the ordinary alkaloidal re-agents. A solution in sulphuric acid after boiling did not reduce an alkaline copper solution. A solution of the extract in dilute hydrochloric acid was precipitated by platinic chloride in excess, the amorphous light yellow precipitate collected on a filter, well washed, and dried in a vacuum over concen- trated sulphuric acid. Two determinations of the metal in this salt yielded 19*07 and 18-91 per cent,, respectively, of platinum, which gives a mean of 18*99 per cent, of platinum. During ignition of the platinum salt there was a very strong odour of benzoic acid. This principle had the properties of an alkaloid; at present its ultimate composition has not been determined. The chloroform which was first agitated with the original alkaline aqueous solution, left a reddish varnish- like residue, which also gave all the reactions of an alkaloid^ and which appeared to be similar to the principle separated from the alkaline solution ; the alkaloid being thus separable both from an acid and an alkaline solution by chloroform, &c.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20413415_001_0085.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
