Chemical examination of Euphorbia pilulifera / by Frederick B. Power and Henry Browning, jun.
- Frederick Belding Power
- Date:
- [1913]
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Chemical examination of Euphorbia pilulifera / by Frederick B. Power and Henry Browning, jun. 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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![H caustic alkali, when, as in the case of the above-mentioned substance, it was found to become decomposed. A small portion of the first fraction was subsequently benzoylated, and the product crystallised from pyridine, when it separated in small colourless needles, which softened at 328° and melted at 331°. Another portion of the same frac- tion was first boiled with alcohol to remove traces of pyridine, then dried at 130° and analysed. 0 0544 gave 0-1114 C0.2 and 0 0117 H.,0. C = 55-8 ; H = 2-4. 01011304 (OH)5 requires C = 55 8; H = 2-3 per cent. The identity of the above-described substance as jambulol was thus completely established. This compound, which had been found an considerable amount in jambul seed3 (from Eugenia Jambolana, Lam.), and was then completely char- acterised, has also been observed to occur in very minute quantity in Chinese rhubarb. 6 In the present instance the total amount isolated from 20-07 kilogrammes of the Euphorbia herb was about 0'25 gramme. Ethyl Acetate and Alcohol Extracts of the Resin. These two extracts were dark in colour, and entirely amor- phous. They were separately heated with dilute sulphuric acid in aqueous alcohol, and the mixture subsequently dis- tilled in a current of steam. The distillates, when extracted with ether, yielded in each case a trace of oily liquid, which gave the colour reaction of furfuraldehyde. The aqueous, acid liquids, on extraction with ether, yielded a trace of cry- stalline substance, which appeared to be identical with the previously described compound, C2BH]a0I5. From the liquid resulting from the above treatment of the alcohol resin a small amount of an osazone (m.p. 196-199°) was prepared, thus indicating the presence in this resin of a little glucosidic material. Summary. The material employed for the present investigation of Euphorbia pilulifera, Linne (Nat. Ord. Euphorbiacece). con- sisted of the entire plant, which had been specially collected for the purpose in the Fiji islands. The air-dried material i(20'07 kilogrammes), when extracted with hot alcohol, and the resulting extract distilled in a current of steam, yielded a small amount (3'7 grammes) of a pale yellow essential oil. From the portion of the alcoholic extract which was soluble in water, the following substances were isolated :—(i.) Gallic acid; (ii.) quercetin, C15Hlo07; (iii.) a new phenolic sub- stance, C„0H18Oi5. The aqueous liquid contained, further- more, a considerable quantity of amorphous glucosidic material, together with a Isevorotatory sugar which yielded •'> Pharmaceutical Journal, 1912. 88, 416. * Journ. Chem. Soc., 1911,99,962.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22439237_0018.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
