Chemical examination of Lippia scaberrima, Sonder ("Beukess boss") / by Frederick B. Power and Frank Tutin.

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

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Chemical examination of Lippia scaberrima, Sonder ("Beukess boss") / by Frederick B. Power and Frank Tutin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    15/18 (page 461)
    sulphide ; but on concentrating the filtrate only a dark-colored tarry mass was obtained, from which nothing crystalline could be isolated. The filtrate from the basic lead acetate precipitate was freed from lead by means of hydrogen sulphide, and, after filtering, was con¬ centrated under diminished pressure. The dark brown syrup thus obtained reduced Fehling’s solution, and on treatment with phenyl- hydrazine acetate gave a small quantity of an osazone melting at 210° C. On allowing the syrupy liquid to stand for some time, a considerable quantity of crystals separated, but these were found to consist only of potassium and calcium sulphates. When warmed with potassium hydroxide it evolved ammonia, but did not give any precipitate with alkaloidal reagents. The syrup was therefore mixed with prepared sawdust, and the mixture dried in a vacuum over sulphuric acid, after which it was extracted in a Soxhlet apparatus with ethyl acetate. This removed a quantity of an uncrystallizable syrup, which did not reduce Fehling’s solution until after it had been boiled with a dilute mineral acid, a behavior which indicated the possible presence of a glucoside. A quantity of the syrup re¬ moved by ethyl acetate was, therefore, diluted with an equal volume of water, 10 per cent, sulphuric acid added, and the mixture gently heated. When the temperature reached about 50° C. a dark-colored, flocculent substance was precipitated, which soon coalesced to a black resin. The mixture was then heated to the boiling point, diluted with water, and distilled in steam, when a slightly turbid distillate was obtained, from which ether removed a few drops of a liquid having a strongly aromatic odor. The distillation flask then contained a hard, black resin, which was insoluble in all the usual solvents and in alkalies, together with a brown aqueous liquid con¬ taining sugar, and this, after the removal of the sulphuric acid, afforded an osazone melting at 211° C. It was evident, therefore, that the ethyl acetate extract of the aqueous liquid contained a glucoside which is readily hydrolyzed by sulphuric acid; but the only definite hydrolytic product obtained was a sugar, which appeared to consist chiefly of optically inactive glucose. SUMMARY. This investigation has shown that Lippia scaberrima, Sonder, contains, besides resins and other amorphous products, the follow¬ ing substances :