The constituents of some cucurbitaceous plants / by Frederick B. Power.

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

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The constituents of some cucurbitaceous plants / by Frederick B. Power. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/16 (page 153)
    when administered to a dog in doses of 1 gramme. A chemical examination of the resin led, however, to some results of interest, inasmuch as it yielded, besides a little phytosterol, a new crystalline alcohol, C24H40O4 (m.p. 260°), which has been designated cucur- bitol. This compound will be further noticed in connection with the constituents of bryony root. Bryony Root. Bryony root has been used medicinally from a very remote period on account of its purgative properties (compare Tschirch, Handbuch dcr Pharmakognosie, 1910, Bd. I, pp. 576, 798). It was formerly recognized by several of the national pharmacopoeias, including that of the United States, but was omitted from the latter in the eighth revision (1900), and is now rarely employed. The plants yielding this root are Bryonia alba, Linne, and Bryonia dioica, Linne, both of which are indigenous to the greater part of Europe, but the last- named species is the only one commonly found in England, and, therefore, is frequently designated English bryony. Bryony root has previously been the subject of several investi¬ gations, chiefly for the purpose of determining the nature of its active constituent (compare Husemann, Die Pflanzenstoffe, 2d edit., p. 1349, and van Rijn, Die Glykoside, p. 463), but until quite re¬ cently 18 no complete examination had been made of it. According to the earlier investigators,* the root contains an amorphous, bitter glucoside, designated as bryonin. As obtained by Masson,19 this product was stated to possess the formula C34H4809, and, on heating with dilute sulphuric acid, to become resolved into dextrose and an amorphous, yellow resin, termed brvogenin, C20H38O4. Another product obtained by Masson, which was of a purely resinous nature, was named bryoresin, and to this the formula C37H6S018 was assigned. A consideration of the method of preparation and charac¬ ters of the above-mentioned products, as described in the literature, renders it evident, however, that they could not have represented pure or homogeneous substances. The material employed for the investigation conducted in these laboratories consisted of the roots of Bryonia dioica, Linne, which had been specially collected in districts near London, under the ls Power and Moore, Journ. Chcm. Soc., 1911, 99, pp. 937-946. 19 Journ. Phcirm. Chini., 1893 [v], 27, 300.