Volume 1
A dictionary of applied chemistry / by Sir Edward Thorpe, assisted by eminent contributors.
- Thomas Edward Thorpe
- Date:
- 1912-1913
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A dictionary of applied chemistry / by Sir Edward Thorpe, assisted by eminent contributors. Source: Wellcome Collection.
16/776 page 4
![substance, the differences being due to the i difficulty of obtaining it in a pure state (Mein, Annalen,8, 61; Luck, Annalen, 78,87; Kromayer, Arch. Pharm. [2] 108, 129). Pure crystallised absinthiin was first isolated by Duquesnel (Bui. de Therapeutique, 107, 438). Senger obtained absinthiin as a pale yellow j amorphous substance melting at 65° and having the empirical formula Cl5H20O4. This formula was confirmed later by Bourcet, who found that j the pure substance crystallises in fine white j prismatic needles melting at 68°, the amorphous form and lower melting-point found by Senger being probably due to traces of a resinous impurity. According to Senger and Bourcet, absinthiin is a glucoside, free from nitrogen, and is decom¬ posed by the action of dilute acids, or even by boiling with water, into dextrose, a volatile oil, and a solid resinous body of the aromatic series. It is soluble in alcohol, ether, chloroform, or benzene; difficultly soluble in light petroleum, water, though more soluble in cold than in boiling water. It gives a precipitate with tannic acid and with gold chloride, which is reduced on warming ; yields volatile fatty acids on oxidation with nitric acid, and oxalic and picric acids with potassium chromate and sulphuric acid. With Frohde’s reagent it gives a brown colour, chang¬ ing to violet, then blue; and with sulphuric acid brown, passing through green to blue (Senger, Arch. Pharm. 230, 103; and Bourcet, Bull. Soc. chim. [3] 19, 537). J. C. ABSINTHOL C10H16O. The essential prin¬ ciple of oil of wormwood derived from Artemisia absinthium (nat. ord. Compositce), a plant indigenous to most European countries and com¬ paratively recently introduced into the United States of America, whence increasing supplies of the cheaper qualities of wormwood oil are now obtained. Although the oil obtained by the distillation of wormwood has been known for at least four centuries, its chemical composition was first systematically investigated in 1845, when Leblanc (Compt. rend. 21, 739) showed that its principal constituent, boiling at 203°, has the formula Ci0Hi6O. This was confirmed later by Gladstone and other investigators (Chem. Soc. Trans. 17,1), and by Beilstein and Kupffer (Annalen, 170, 290), who gave to the product the name ‘ absinthol,, and identified its dehydration product with cymene. Semmler (Ber. 25, 3350) proved absinthol to be a ketone identical with thujone or tanacetone, which occurs largely in other essential oils, as oil of tansy, sage, and Artemisia barelieri. It is a colourless oily liquid of pleasant odour, strongly dextrorotatory (about +68°), boils at 203°, density 0-9126 at 20°, and refractive index 1-4495. Though isomeric with camphor, it differs from that body in combining with sodium bisulphite and in not being converted into camphoric acid by means of nitric acid, nor into campho- carboxylic acid by treatment with carbon dioxide and sodium. With melted potash it gives a resin, but no acid. When heated with P2S5 and ZnCl2 it yields cymene (Beilstein and Kupffer, Ber. 6, 1183; Annalen, 170, 290; Wright, Chem. Soc. Trans. 27, 1 and 319 • Semmler, Ber. 25, 3343 and 27, 895): J. C. / ABUTILON INDICUM (Sweet), PETAREE or TUBOCUTY. The bark of this malvaceous tree consists of long, thin, tough fibrous strips (bast fibres), and, according to Dymock (Pharm. J. [3] 8, 383) and others, is worthy of attention as a source of fibre. ABYSSINIAN GOLD. A yellow alloy of 90-7 parts of copper and 8*3 of zinc. The ingot is plated on one side with gold, and is then rolled out into sheets, from which articles of jewellery are formed in the usual way, the amount of gold on the finished article varying from 0-03 to 1-03 p.c. Known also as Talmi gold. The term is sometimes applied in trade to Aluminium Bronze. ACACIA CATECHU (Willd) or KHAIR is a tree growing in various parts of India. Its un¬ ripe pods and wood, by decoction, yield a catechu (Agricult. Ledger, 1895, No. 1, and 1896, No. 35) known by the name of Cutch or Kutch, which must not be confounded with the officinal catechu (Catechu pallidum). It is used in the preparation of some leathers and by dyers. The timber is also used for constructional and other purposes. ACACIA GUM v. Gums. ACANTHITE. A form of silver sulphide found at the Enterprise mine, near Rico, in black crystals of orthorhombic habit (Chester, Zeitsch. Kryst. Min. 1896, 26, 526). ACAROID RESIN or BOTANY BAY RESIN v. Xanthorrhosa Balsams, art. Balsams. ACCIPENSERINE. A protamine belonging to the sturine group found in the testis of Acci- penser stellatus. Composition of the sulphate : C35H7209N18,4H2S04(Kura6eff, Zeitsch. physiol. Chem.” 1901, 32, 197). ACENAPHTHENE C12H10, i.e. C10H6:C2H4. A crystalline substance found in coal-tar oil (Berthelot, Bull. Soc. Chim. [2] 8, 226). Obtained by cooling the fraction of heavy coal-tar oil boiling between 260° and 270°. On recrystallising the solid product from alcohol, acenaphthene is obtained in long needles, m.p. 95° (Behr and Dorp, Annalen, 172, 265), 103° (Schiff, Annalen, 223, 263); b.p. 278°; 229-5° (Perkin, Chem. Soc. Trans. 69, 1196). For its Absorption Spectrum, v. Baly ancj Tuck (Chem. Soc. Trans. 1908, 1902); Heats of Solution (Speyers, Amer. Chem. J. 18, 146) ; Magnetic Rotation (Perkin, Chem. Soc. Trans. 1896, 1088) ; Refraction and Dispersion (Pellini, Gazz. chim. ital. 31, i. 1); Similarity in form to acenaphthylene (Billows, Chem. Zentr. 1903, ii. 44). Is reduced by hydrogen in presence of nickel to tetrahydroacenaphthene (Sabatier and Sen- derens, Compt. rend. 132, 210, and 566); with Ni02 to tetrahydro- and dekahydroacenaphthene (Ipatjew, Ber. 41, 997). With potassium dichromate and acetic acid yields naphthalic acid and acenaphthenequinone (Graebe and Gfeller, Ber. 25, 652; Jaubert, Gazz. chim. ital. 25, i. 245). Derivatives.—Oxygenated (Graebe and Gfeller, Annalen, 276, 1 ; Hodgkinson, Chem. Soc. Proc. 1896, 110); with sulphur (Dziewonski, Ber. 36, 962; Rehlander, Ber. 36,1583); styphnate (Gib¬ son, Chem. Soc. Trans. 1908, 2098). ACETAL C6H1402, or CH3-CH(OC2H5)2 (Do- bereiner, Gm. 4, 805 : Liebig, Annalen, 5, 25 ; 14, 156 ; Stas, Ann. Chim. Phys. [3] 19, 146 ;](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b31355080_0001_0016.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
