The constituents of the seeds of Casimiroa edulis / by Frederick B. Power and Thomas Callan.

  • Frederick Belding Power
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The constituents of the seeds of Casimiroa edulis / by Frederick B. Power and Thomas Callan. 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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    solution of 90 grams of potassium hydroxide in one litre of alcohol. After the removal of the alcohol, water was added, and the alkaline liquid repeatedly extracted with ether. Isolation of Sitosterol, C27II40O,II2O. The ethereal extract of the alkaline liquid was dried, and the solvent evaporated. A pale yellow, crystalline product was thus obtained, which was dissolved in hot alcohol, when, on cooling, a quantity (8'8 grams) of a substance separated in colourless plates. On recrystallising the substance from a mixture of ethyl acetate and dilute alcohol, it was obtained in needles, melting at 134—135°: 0‘2263, on heating at 100°, lost 0’0114 H20. H,O = 50. 0-1048* gave 0'3218 CO, and 0-1153 H„0. C=837; H = 12'2. C27H46O,H,0 requires H20 = 4'5 per cent. C27H460 requires C = 83‘9; H = 1T9 per cent. The substance was thus identified as a phytostcrol, and it gave the colour reactions of that class of compounds. A determination of its optical rotatory power gave the following result: O'3118,* made up to 20 c.c. with chloroform, gave aD —1°0' in a 2-dcm. tube, whence [a]D —321°. The phytosterol gave an acetyl derivative, which separated from acetic anhydride in small needles, melting at 126—127°. Its identity with sitosterol was therefore established. The original alcoholic mother liquor remaining from the crystal- lisation of the sitosterol was evaporated, when a quantity (10 grams) of viscid, oily material was obtained. This was found to consist chiefly of oxygenated substances, but nothing definite could be isolated from it. Isolation of Ijmranol, C23H3802(0H)2. The alkaline liquid, from which the sitosterol had been removed by extraction with ether, was acidified, and the liberated fatty acids taken up with ether. The ethereal liquid contained a quantity of a dark-coloured, crystalline substance in suspension. This was collected, heated with alcohol for the removal of colouring matter, and then recrystallised from dilute pyridine, from which it separated in microscopic needles, melting at 280—285°. The amount of substance so obtained was 2'9 grams. (Found, C = 72 6; H = 10-4. Calc., C = 72'6; H = 10'5 per cent.)