912 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS.
Flowers purple without and within. Found throughout India.
Use : — The young fruits, sold as Gharbhidi in Bombay, and Maratia mughu in Madras, are said to be sedative and slightly intoxicating (Ainslie).
Hyoscyainine is the predominant alkaloid accompanied in most cases by scopolamine, present in the leaves, seeds, roots, fruit and stems. No atropine can be detected ; but there is evidence of the presence of a third alkaloid in the roots.
Indian plant is quite equal to the European one with regard to total content of alkaloids, the figures obtained (referred to dry material) beiug: — seeds, 0-186; fruits, 46; leaves, 0'41-045 ; stems, 0*25-0*26 ; and roots, 0'214 per cent.— [Bull. Imp. Inst. 1911.]
The following is the composition of the oil obtained from the seeds: — palmitic acid, 10 p. c; daturic acid (normal heptadecylic acid) 2'5 ; oleic acid 62 ; linolic acid, 15 ; unsaponifiable, 1 ; and glycerol, 9'6 per cent. The oil also contains small quantities of acids of higher molecular weight than those mentioned, but not stearic acid. Daturic acid is more soluble in alcohol than palmitic acid. -J. Ch. I. May 31, 1912, p. 500.
By distilling the leaves with superheated steam, 0'045 per cent of a dark-brown oil with a strong tobacco-like odour was obtained. The oil had an acid reaction and solidified at 20°C; its sp. gr. was 0'9440 at 30°C. After purification in ethereal solution with animal charcoal, it had the acid value 524 ; "Saponification value 9*57." After saponification, an alcohol with a strong tobacco-like odour was obtained by distillation with steam.— J. Ch. I.
15. 12. 1910, p. 1408.
D. Holde extracted 167 per cent, of oil from the air-dried seeds of Datura Stramonium by meane of benzene. The alkaloid, daturine was apparently not extracted by the solvent, or at least could not be detected in the oil. The oil thus obtained was green to yellowish— brown in colour and had a characteristic odour. On standing it yielded a dark flocculent resin-like deposit. The filtered oil had an efflux velocity in Engler's apparatus nine times less than that of water at 20°C. Its specific gravity at 15°C. was 0*9175. When cooled to 0°C. it began to gelatinise ; at— 15 C C. it became viscous, and thick at — 15 C C. It dried forming a firm skin, when heated in a thin layer for 13 hours at 50°C. whilst at the ordinary temperature it was still liquid after 23 days, and only showed signs of drying after 35 days. Its iodine value was 113, and its saponification value, 186. The fatty acids were judged to contain solid unsaturated readily oxidisable acids as well as solid saturated acids. The iodine value of the liquid acids was exceptionally low. The solid fatty acids fractionally precipitated by means of magnesium acetate, yielded, in addition to daturic acid, C l7 H 34 2 (m. pt. 55°C.) an acid of molecular weight 261, and in. pt. 60°-62 c C, (palmitic acid, molecular weight 256, and m. pt. 62°C), and an acid melting at 53 -54°B., and having a molecular weight of over 286.
J. Ch. I. Dec. 15, 1902 p. 1459.
