Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/445

Rh From the soft parts of the dried berries, 10.5 p. c. of the saponin, C17H26O10 2t5 O 10 is obtained. J. Ch. S. 1901 A. I. 648.

The sajponin occurs in the form of salts, probably Na and K. The powdered fruit shells are extd. with 95% alc., Pb (OAC)2 is aded to ppt. the Pb salt of the saponin, and the Pb salt is decompd. by H2S, the solu. evapd., dild. with water and acidified with dil. HCl ; the saponin seps. very slowly as an almost white flocculent ppt. It is filtered, washed with dil. alc. and purified first by dialysis, then by pptn. from alc. with H2O. When dried it forms a white power, sol. in alc., MeOH. insol. in H2O, Et2O, CHCl3, acetone and petr. ether. H2SO4 gives a yellowish red color changing to reddish violet ; when the saponin is added drop by drop, to a soln. in Ac2O, a violet-red color results. NaOH added to a suspension in H2O, forms a foaming, strongly hemolytic soln., [a]20D+13-28° (in alc). Fehling soln, is not reduced directly. On hydrolysis with 3% H2SO4 or alc. HCl. sapogenin and d-arabinose are formed. Sapogenin, white, odorless and tasteless plates from alc. m. 319°, insol. in H2O, Et2O, CHC13, acetone and petr. ether, sol, in alc, MeOH and alc KOH. Potassium salt, C31H47O5K, white needles, difficulty sol. in H2O. Barium salt, white needles. Triacetylsapogenin, prepd. by heating a mixt. of sapogenin, AcCl and AcONa at the b. p., fine white needles, m. 167°. Benzoylsapogenin, m. 107°. Monomethylsapoyenin, prepd. with Me2SO4, needles (from alc), m. 218°.— Chemical Abstracts, for July 20, 1916 p. 1864.

Habitat : — Cultivated in India ; originally an ative of China.

Vern : — Litchi (H.) ; Kyetmauk (Burm.) ; Lichi (Bomb.).

A handsome, evergreen tree, 30-40ft. high ; clear stem 12-20ft. long, girth 3-4ft. Bark thin, grey, rough. Wood red, hard, heavy. Pores moderate-sized, the transverse diameter usually considerably greater than the distance between the rays. Medullary rays very fine, very numerous (Gamble), all parts glabrous. Leaves usually abruptly pinnate ; leaflets in 6 to 8 pair, opposite, lanceolate, shortly petioled, about 3-6in. long, acuminate, entire, coriaceous, glossy above, glaucous beneath, the netvenation obsolete ; flowers minute, greenish, shortly pedicelled, forming a terminal branched, usually slightly puberulous panicle, of the length of the leaves or longer ; petals none. Stamens 6-8 ; filaments and ovary pubescent. Style with 2-stigmate lobes ; fruit-lobes usually solitary by abortion, rarely haired, oval, the size of a pigeon's egg, covered by the red muricate-areolate, somewhat crustaceous epicarp, 1-seeded ; the seed large, black, shining, completely covered with the