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.

    3/20
    XIjIX.— Chemical Examination of Scammontj Root and of Scammony. By Frederick Bedding Power and Harold Rogerson. The gum-resin obtained by incision from the living root of Con- volviilm Scammonia, Linne (Nat. Ord. Gonvolviilaceae), and commonly designated as scammony or ‘‘ virgin scammony,” has been known and used medicinally for many centuries (compare “ Pharmacographia,” 2nd edit., p. 439). The value of this product depends on its resinous constituent, which, however, is now most frequently prepared by extracting the dried scammony root with alcohol, and precipitating the resin with water. The resin of scammony, as obtained from either of these sources, is still recog¬ nised by several of the national Pharmacopoeias, although at the present time it appears to have been displaced to a large extent by the resin from the root of Ifomota orizahensis, Ledanois— commonly known as “ Mexican Scammony Root,” the two products being generally regarded as chemically identical (compare this vol., p. 1). The term “ scammonin,” as applied to the resin of scam¬ mony, is therefore considered to be synonymous with the “ jalapin ” of Mayer (^Annalen, 1855, 95, 129), which designates the ether- soluble resin of the above-mentioned species of I'pomoea. Considerable attention has hitherto been devoted to the sugars contained in scammony root, and especially to those produced by the hydrolysis of scammony resin and jalapin ” (compare Votocek, Zeitsch. Zuckerind. Bohm., 1903, 27, 257; 1905, 30, 20, 117; Ber., 1904, 37, 3859, 4615; Requier, J. Fharm. Chim., 1904, [vij, 20, 148, 213; 1905, [vi], 22, 435, 492, 540). Apart from these products, however, the previously recorded investigations pertaining to scam¬ mony root or its resin have been either of a somewhat fragmentary nature or based on the erroneous assumption that the resin is a homogeneous substance. One of the earliest investigations of scammony resin was by Johnston (^Fhil. Trans.^ 1840, Part II., p. 341), who assigned to the product obtained from the gum-resin known as scammony the formula C4QH33O20, or, according to present notation, C2oH330|o- Keller (^Annalen, 1857, 104, 63; 1859, 109, 209) gave to ‘'scam¬ monin” the formula C3gH(j40j(5, whereas Spirgatis {Annalen^ 1860, '' 289, and Arck. Fharm., 1894, 232, 241, 482) believed it to possess the formula C34H5QOJ6, which is the same as that assigned by Mayer to “jalapin” {loc. cit., and this vol., p. 2). Kromer {J. Chem. Soc., 1893, 64, i, 423) considered scammony resin to be