Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/541

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Habitat: — Shores of the Eastern and Western Peninsulas and Ceylon.

An evergreen shrub or small tree. Branches, leaves and inflorescence shortly and thinly grey-tomentose. Branches virgate and persistently downy. Leaves ½ft long. Leaflets flexible, subcoriaceous, thick, obliquely elliptic-obtuse, 2in. long, 11-17, dull grey-green, the veins immersed on both surfaces. Flowers sulphur-yellow, 'in terminal racemes, which latter are ½ft. long ; pedicels densely silky, articulated a little below the Calyx. Calyx nearly truncate, very oblique ¼-⅜in. Corolla ⅝-¾in., blade of standard round, veined. Pod without wings or ridges, 4-6in. long, hoary, 6-10-seeded, the oblong, hoary, seed-bearing joints separated by a narrow, long, seedless neck as long as or shorter than the seed-bearing joint.

Use : — Mr. F. M. Bailey states that the roots and seeds have been considered as specifics in bilious sickness in New South Wales (Air. Maiden in the Ph. Journal, for Sept. 1st, 1889, p. 180).

Considerable quantities of sophorine were extracted from Sophora tomentosa, and very carefiUly compared with pure cytisine, C11H14N2O, with the result that these two alkaloids proved to be identical. During this investigation, many new characteristics of cytisine were determined, and new derivatives formed.

The rotatory polarisation of cytisine nitrate is [d]D — 93°26, the co-efficient of refraction, 1.34419. Cytisine gives no reaction with strong sulphuric acid, or with that acid and sugar, cerous oxide, or Vanadic acid. Fröhde's reagent, and evaporation with phosphoric acid, likewise yield no reaction. Erdmann's reagent causes an orange-yellow coloration ; concentrated nitric acid, on warming, a reddish yellow coloration, which becomes rather darker on the addition of potash ; strong sulphuric acid and potassium dichromate, a green coloration ; evaporation with hydrochloric acid leaves a yellow residue ; calcium hypochlorite gives no coloration.

Methyloytisine hydriodide, G12H16N2O, H I ; prepared by the action of methylic iodide on the free alkaloid, yields colourless crystals ; its solution gives a rotary polarisation, [d]D=-81°, and a refractive index of 1.35427. The platinochloride crystallises is orange-yellow needles; the aurochloride insgolden -yellow needles.

With bromine, cytisine yields an orange-red compound containing 4 atoms