Chemical examination of the bark of erythrophlœum guineense / by Frederick B. Power and Arthur H. Salway.

  • Power, Frederick B. (Frederick Belding), 1853-1927
Date:
[1912?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Chemical examination of the bark of erythrophlœum guineense / by Frederick B. Power and Arthur H. Salway. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/22 (page 349)
    Am. Jour. Pharm. ) ui i ^ August, 1912. j zrythrophloeum (jiiitieevise. 349 acid passed over. The distillation flask then contained, besides the aqueous liquid, a quantity of a viscid resin, which was collected, dissolved in alcohol, dried on purified sawdust, and the mixture extracted with ether in a Soxhlet apparatus. From this ethereal extract a small amount of a yellow, crystalline substance was ob¬ tained which proved to be identical with the previously described luteolin. I lie aqueous, acid liquid, from which the above-mentioned viscid resin had been separated, was first extracted with ether, which, however, removed only a small quantity of gummy material. It was then freed from sulphuric acid by means of barium hydroxide, ami finally concentrated under diminished pressure to a small volume. This liquid readily reduced Fehling’s solution, and yielded an osazone melting and decomposing at 2io°. The results above described indicated the presence of a glu- coside in the ethyl acetate extract of the resin, and it is probable that the small amount of luteolin which was isolated after the treatment with dilute sulphuric acid represented one of its hydrolytic products. 1 he alcohol extract of the resin was a brownish-black, brittle solid, which amounted to 400 grammes, and represented 80 per cent, of the total resinous material employed. It was completely amorphous, and as it appeared to undergo no change when heated with dilute sulphuric acid in aqueous alcohol, it evidently contained nothing of a glucosidic character. Physiological Tests. In order to determine the action of the extract prepared from Eiythrophlceum bark, and of some of the products obtained there¬ from, a number of tests were kindly conducted for us bv Dr. H. H. Dale, Director of the Wellcome Physiological Research Laboratories, to w horn our best thanks may here be expressed. One gramme of the original alcoholic extract, representing about 2.6 grammes of the bark, was administered to a dog, when it caused continuous vomiting and a marked slowing of the heart¬ beat. One gramme of the total resinous material (= 7.4 grammes of bark) had much less effect, but caused some vomiting. A quantity of the water-soluble portion of the original alcoholic ex¬ tract, representing 4 grammes of the bark, caused retching, without actual vomiting, and a distinct action on the heart.