Chemical examination of the fruit of Brucea antidysenterica / by Frederick B. Power and Arthur H. Salway.

  • Power, Frederick B. (Frederick Belding), 1853-1927.
Date:
[1907]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Chemical examination of the fruit of Brucea antidysenterica / by Frederick B. Power and Arthur H. Salway. 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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    I 1. A fatty oil, amounting to 22-16 per cent, of the weight of the fruit. Tliis oil, on hydrolysis, yielded chiefly oleic acid, together with a small amount of an acid having a higher degree of unsaturation, which is probably linolic acid; considerable amounts of pxlmitic and stearic acids, and a very small quantity of acetic and butyric acids. It afforded, furthermore, a small amount of a 'phytosterol, C20H34O, H2O (m.p., 135-136°C.), wliilst another phytosterol, melting at 147° C., was obtained from the petroleum extract of the resins. 2. A small amount of free volatile acids, cbnsisting of a mixture of formic and butyric acids. 3. A quantity of resinous substances, corresponding to about 1 per cent, of the weight of the fruit. From these, with the exception of a small amount of the above-mentioned phytosterol, nothing crystalline could be isolated. 4. A bitter 'principle, or po.ssibly a mixture of such principles, which could only be obtained in an amorphous form. 5. A considerable quantity of amorplious yellow colouriny matter. 6. A large amount of a sugar, which yielded an osazone melt- ing at 217°C., and was therefore evidently glucose. The constituents of tlie fruit of Brucea antidysenterica, Lam., are tlius found to be very similar in character to .those of the fruit of Brucea sumalrana, Roxb (“ K6-sam seeds ”), and it may consequently be assumed that the two species possess similar medicinal properties. The bitter principles appear, how- ever, to be contained in relatively larger amount in the fruit of Brucea sumatrana than in that of the Abyssinian species, and in view of the difficulty experienced in collecting the fruit of the latter it is not probable that it will acquire a very extended use. It may Anally be noted that the Pharmacopoea Nederlandica [Editio Quarta, 1905) has given official recognition to the fruit of Brucea sumatraim, Roxb., which is described under the title of Itructus Riuceae, and it is there stated that in the Dutch East Indies this is known, among other names, as “ bidji makasai- ” [grami macasaria), and “ tambara maridja.” Ihe Wellcome Chemical Research Laboratories, London, E.C.