Abstracts of Papers from other Journals. ON THE CHEMISTRY OF AUSTRALIAN PRODUCTS. (Up to 1882.) ALEURITIS TRILOBA. Forst. and Cocoa-nuts, G. Mallino (Gazzetta chimica Italiana II, 257; Chem. Soc. J. XXVI, 85). Candle-nuts. The fruit of this tree, indigenous in the Pacific Islands, are so called from their easy inflammability. The fresh kernels are not unpleasant to the taste, but exert a purgative action, they are however eaten by the natives after roasting. The average weight of the shells is 6·5 grm.—of the kernels, 3.3 grm. The second column shows the percentage on the kernels. The fatty matter extracted from the kernels by carbon disulphide at ordinary temperatures is a transparent amber yellow syrupy liquid. When cooled to -10° it becomes viscous, but does not otherwise alter. It rapidly becomes rancid, and acquires a yellow brown colour and a disagreeable odour, and is used in Europe for soap-making. Note by abstractor.-A very superior lamp-black is made from the oil by the S.S. Islanders, who use it mixed with the expressed oil to form the black patterns on their mats. The same author has examined copra or dried cocoa-nuts, and the cake left after expressing the oil, the latter of which is used extensively as a cattle fodder in England, with the following 2.75 ... Nitrogen per cent. Phosphoric anhydride per cent. in ash ... 24.35 NUTS OF ALEURITES TRILOBA. B. Corenwinder. (Compt. Rend. LXXXI, 43.) The nut consists of 33 per cent. of kernel and 67 per cent. of endocarp. The kernel has the following composition: The cake obtained from the nuts after decortication contained :— Although from its purgative qualities the cake is not adapted for feeding, it forms a good manure. The expressed oil is also purgative, and its lighting power, even without refining, is superior to that of colza. OIL OF ALEURITES TRILOBA. M. E. Hakel. (Compt. Rend. Aug. 23, 1875, Ch. News. XXXII, 157.) The oil is not much more purgative than oil of sweet almonds. It was used in New Caledonia for the lamps in a light-house; but it corroded the metal jets, even those of platinum. The author was unsuccessful in his endeavour to so purify it as to prevent this action. Cocoa-nut oil cake. Gronven. (Wochen blatt der Annalen der Landwerthschaft, 1866, p. 453. Chem. Soc. J. XXVI, 87.) The following numbers were obtained : and the ash contained in 100 parts— 21.20 8.60 7.70 9.36 H2O Na2O CaO NyO Fc20, P205 SO3 SiO2 C2 ALSTONIA CONSTRICTA. Palm. (Jaresb. 1863, 615; Watt's Dict. Sup. I, 101.) The bark of Alstonia constricta contains a neutral resinous bitter principle (similar to cailcedrin and tulucunin), a volatile oil smelling like camphor, an iron-greening tannin, gum, resin, fat, wax, protein substance, oxalic acid and citric acid. The ash, amounting to 6-06 per cent. on the bark, contains Nu20 K20 NuCl CuO NyO Fe2O3 Nu304 S03 P2O5 SiO2 CO2 0.48 6.96 3.06 32.83 3.61 3:43 0.78 9.33 Tr. 15 60 23.50 ALSTONINE. Von Mueller and Rummel. (C.S.J. XXXV, 31.) The alkaloid from the bark of Alstonia constricta is obtained by treating its alcoholic extract with water and hydrochloric acid, precipitation by ammonia, and solution of the separated flocks in ether. The ether is evaporated, and a repetition of the process leaves the alkaloid as an orange-yellow, brittle, pellucid mass, which is very bitter. It melts below 100°, is carbonized at higher temperatures, is easily soluble in alcohol, ether, and dilute acids, sparingly in water, and all when dilute show a strong blue fluorescence. Its alcoholic solution is slightly alkaline, but although it combines with acids it does not completely neutralize them. Strong acids and alkalies decompose it partially on evaporation in the water bath, leaving a dark-coloured viscid acid substance. The hydrochloride gives precipitates with the chlorides of platinum and mercury, the potassio-mercuric and potassiobismuthous iodides, also with biniodide of potassium, phosphomolybdate and phospho-tungstate of sodium, bichromate of potassium, picric acid, alkalies and alkaline carbonates. Tannin does not precipitate the hydrochloride, but precipitates the acetate or the free base. Q Concentrated nitric acid dissolves alstonine with a crimson colour, becoming yellow on warming; sulphuric adid with reddish brown colour changing to dirty green; with hydrochloric acid it gives a yellow solution. ALSTONIA BARK. O. Hesse. (Deut. Chem. Ges. Ber. XI, 2232; C.S.J. XXXVI, 332.) The bark contains from 2 to 2.5 per cent. of chlorogenine and 0.1 per cent. of porphyrine. The author considers that Palm's alstonine (Wittstein's Viertel Jaresb. f. pr. Pharm., XII, 161) is a mixture of these two alkaloids, and that the alstonine of Mueller and Rummel is probably impure chlorogenine. ALSTONIA CONSTRICTA. Oberlin and Schlagdenhauffen. (Pharm. J. Trans. [3]. X 1059. C.S.J. XXXVIII, 127.) The bark extracted with ether, alcohol and water successively ives up 1.038, 27.74 and 1.371 per cent. of extract respectively. The orange-coloured residue left on evaporating the etherial solution taken up in dilute hydrochloric acid (1200) treated with animal charcoal, precipitated with ammonia and redissolved in ether, (these operations being repeated until all colouring matter is removed) crystallizes in silky tufts of lustrous needles from the etherial solution. It is soluble in ether, alcohol, chloroform, benzine, acetone and light petroleum, moderately soluble in boiling water but insoluble in cold. It dissolves readily in dilute acids, and is precipitated by the same reagents as the other alkaloids. It is easily soluble in concentrated sulphuric, nitric, or hydrochloric acids, without colouration, but on diluting these solutions a blue fluorescence is produced. Concentrated sulphuric acid with bichromate of potasssium colour the crystals intensely blue-green, passing to violet and purple; on adding water a crimson solution is obtained. The etherial mothers from which the alstonine had crystallized left an amorphous alkaloid on evaporation, which the authors propose to call alstonicine. It resembles alstonine, but is only sparingly soluble in boiling water. It dissolves in concentrated sulphuric and hydrochloric acids with a greenish brown tint, in nitric acid with a splendid crimson red, and its acid solutions do not exhibit fluorescence. PORPHYRINE. O. Hesse. (Ann. Ch. Pharm. Suppl. IV, 40; Watt's Dict. Suppl. I, 955.) A base obtained from an Australian bark (Alstonia constricta ?) The aqueous extract of the bark is acidulated with sulphuric acid, and mixed with mercuric chloride, which forms a precipitate. The excess of mercury is removed from the filtered solution by sulphureted hydrogen, the liquid neutralized by ammonia, evaporated to a small bulk, the alkaloid precipitated by carbonate of sodium and extracted by ether. The etherial solution is decolourized by animal charcoal and evaporated, when the porphyrine remains as a varnish, soluble in water and in alcohol, and partly crystallizing from the latter in thin, white prisms. Its solutions are alkaline and intensely bitter. The base melts at 82°, and resolidifies in the amorphous state. With strong nitric acid it exhibits a characteristic red colour; with sulphuric and hydrocloric acid it forms neutral salts, whose solutions exhibit a strong, blue fluorescence when slightly acidulated. The sulphate crystalizes in thin prisms, easily soluble in water and alcohol; the hydriodide, mercuro-chloride, platino-chloride, and auro-chloride are yellow or white precipitates. In the solution of the acid sulphate, potassium dichromate produces a blood red colour, which subsequently disappears, with formation of a yellow precipitate. CHLOROGENINE. O. Hesse. (An. Ch. Pharm. Suppl. IV, 40. Jaresb. 1865, p. 458; Watt's Dict. Suppl. I, 443.) The mercuric-chloride precipitate (last extract) is the mercurochloride of chlorogenine. Separated from the mercury compound and precipitated from the solution of its sulphate by ammonia, it is a coffee-coloured amorphous powder easily soluble in acids when recently precipitated, soluble also in ammonia, fusel oil, and especially so in chloroform, with which it yields a solution, redbrown by transmitted and green by reflected light. It is very bitter, and causes uneasiness and a tendency to vomit when swallowed. It is the active and colouring principle of the bark, which contains 2 per cent. of it. Its formula is C24 H20 04, and it yields only amorphous salts. ALKALOIDS OF ALSTONIA CONSTRICTA. O. Hesse. (Annalen CCV, 360, Chem. Soc. Jour. XL, 623.) Various substances have been described by different chemists under the name of alstonine, which the author proposes to confine to chlorogenine. This base is prepared by dissolving the alcoholic extract of the bark in water saturated with acid sodium carbonate. The clear filtered solution is agitated with light petroleum to remove other bodies, and the alstonine obtained by saturating the solution with soda and shaking with chloroform, which becomes blackish brown. The base is removed from the chloroform by agitation with water and acetic acid; the chloroform being distilled off, the acid liquid is purified by filtration through animal charcoal and the alkaloid precipitated by soda. ALSTONINE, C2 H20 N2 O4, is a brown amorphous mass, becomir darker in the desiccator and finally of a coffee colour, the change being rapid at 80°. It dissolves easily in chloroform but less so when dried, easily also in alcohol, but sparingly in ether. The dry alkaloid melts at 195° (uncorr.) whilst its hydrate (with 3 H2O) melts below 100°. Alstonine, contrary to the observations of Palm, is a strong base forming salts with acids. Its platino |