the North of India." It is sometimes mentioned as Naipala, indicating its coming from Nepal. Chiretta possesses the property of a bitter tonic, but, unlike most other medicines of this class, it does not constipate the bowels, but rather tends to produce a regular action. It causes a free discharge of bile while promoting a more healthy action, hence its position in European practice as a tonic to gouty persons. In his Hindu Materia Medica, U. C. Dutt says it is tonic, febrifuge and laxative, and is used in fever, burning of the body, intestinal worms and skin diseases. It is particularly useful as a tonic or mild febrifuge in fever. A powder containing about fifty
ingredients and known as Sudarsana churna is much used in chronic febrile diseases by native doctors. It is an excellent bitter for children, and should be taken every morning, then discontinued for a time, thereafter to be resumed until the desired action has been produced. Moodeen Sheriff Khan Bahadur and several other authors have drawn attention to the adulterants of this most valuable medicine. Those most frequently seen are S. angustifolia, Ham. S. decussata. Nimmo ; S. elegans, Wight, (vide Balfour's Cyclopedia of India, 3rd Edition, Vol. I., p. 701)
At the request of the authors of the Pharmacographia, a chemical examination of chiretta was made by Hohn under the direction of Professor Ludwig of Jena. The chief results may be thus described. Among the bitter principles of the drug, Ophelic Acid, C15H20O13 . occurs in the largest proportion. It is an amorphous, viscid, yellow substance of an acidulous, persistently bitter taste, and a faint gentian-like odour. With basic acetate of lead, it produces an abundant yellow precipitate. Ophelic acid does not form an insoluble compound with tannin ; it dissolves in water, alcohol and ether. The first solution causes the separation of protoxide of copper from an alkaline tartrate of that metal.
A second bitter principle, Chiratin, C26H48O15 may be removed by means of tannic acid, with which it forms an insoluble compound. Chiratin is neutral, not distinctly crystalline, light yellow hygroscopic powder, soluble in alcohol, ether and in warm water. By boiling hydrochloric acid, it is decomposed into Chiratogenin, C13H2403 and Ophelic acid. Chiratogenin is a brownish, amorphous substance, soluble in alcohol but not in water, nor yielding a tannic compound. No sugar is formed in this decomposition.
The results exhibit no analogy to those obtained in the analysis of the European gentians. Finally Höhn remarked in chiretta a crystallisable, tasteless yellow substance, but its quantity was so minute that no investigation of it could be made. The leaves of chiretta. dried at 100° C., afforded 7.5 per
