Chemical examination of scammony root and of scammony / by Frederick B. Power and Harold Rogerson.

  • Frederick Belding Power
Date:
[1912?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Chemical examination of scammony root and of scammony / by Frederick B. Power and Harold Rogerson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/20 (page 407)
    Ethyl Acetate Extract of the Hydrolysed Resin (II). This extract was a viscid mass, and amomnted to 18 grams. When thoroughly dried it could be reduced to a light brown powder, which soon became glutinous on exposure to the air, but was only sparingly soluble in water. When heated with a 5 per cent, solution of sulphuric acid in aqueous alcohol, a little methyl jalapinolate was obtained, together with small amounts of jalapinolic, formic, and valeric acids. After the removal of the sulphuric acid from the remaining aqueous liquid, it reduced Fehling’s solution and yielded ^/-phenylglucosazone (m. p. 205—-206°), together with a small amount of an osazone melting at 180—182°. The latter was identical with an osazone of the same melting point prepared from the below-mentioned alcohol extract of the hydrolysed resin after treatment with dilute sulphuric acid, and was evidently rhamnosazone. Alcohol Extract of the Hydrolysed Resin (II). This represented the chief portion of the hydrolysed ethereal extract of the resin, and amounted to 230 grams. It was a light- coloured, amorphous mass, which could easily be powdered, and was stable in the air. It was readily soluble in water and in alcohol, and did not reduce Fehling’s solution until after heating with a mineral acid. The aqueous solution was optically active, and a determination of the specific rotatory power gave the following result: An aqueous solution, of which 5 c.c. contained 0'4798 gram of the extract, dried at 110°, gave — 5°30^ in a 2-dcm. tube, whence [a]j3 -28*6° A quantity (150 grams) of the above-described product was dissolved in water, and such an amount of sulphuric acid added that the solution (1500 grams) contained 5 per cent, of its weight of acid. After heating the liquid for about three hours in a reflux apparatus, it was distilled in a current of steam until volatile products ceased to pass over. The distillate was then extracted with ether, the ethereal liquid being dried, and the solvent removed. A small quantity of liquid acid, distilling between 172° and 175°, was thus obtained, which was identified by means of its silver salt as a valeric acid. (Found, Ag = 51‘4. Calc., Ag = 51‘7 per cent.) The aqueous liquid from which the valeric acid had been removed was found to contain a small amount of formic acid. After the removal of the volatile acids as above described, the distillation flask contained a dark yellow liquid with a cake of solid material floating on the surface. The whole was extracted