COCA.

FIRST NOTICE.

BY C. J. H. WARDEN.

The fruit of the E. Coca used for the examination described in this note were collected from plants about two years old, grown in my garden at Alipore, near Calcutta, and originally received from the Agri-Horticultural Society of India. The fresh ripe fruit weighed, on an average, 158 gram each, were bright scarlet in colour, and possessed a distinctly sweetish taste; but though masticated at various times, no physiological action on the mucous membrane of the mouth was observed. By exposure to even a moderate degree of heat the bright red hue of the fresh ripe fruit was changed to dark brown; with partially ripe fruit the alteration in colour by heat was much less marked. Dried in vacuo over sulphuric acid the original tint was only slightly deepened, and this method of desiccation was employed in preparing the fruit for analysis, on account of the possible action of heat causing partial decomposition of any alkaloidal principle, such as cocaine, which might be present.

melting point of 34-35° C. in a capillary tube, and formed a deep red transparent liquid, becoming opaque on cooling. A portion of the extract was digested on the water-bath in a closed vessel with colourless alcoholic potash, the alcohol drained off, water added, and the contents of the flask boiled. The resulting soap solution was turbid from the presence of orange-coloured flocks. When cold the turbid solution was agitated with ether; the ethereal solution left on spontaneous evaporation a bulky residue, partly orange-coloured and partly white while still moist with ether. After drying at 100° C. this extract amounted to 1·519 per cent., calculated on the fruit containing 5·423 per cent. of moisture. At 189-191° C. the extract melted to a clear yellow liquid, which cooled to a brittle transparent mass; on heating more strongly an odour of burning indiarubber was noticed. Placed between watch-glasses and exposed for several days to a temperature near its melting point, very slender, long colourless needles formed on the surface of the mass, while a trace of a white sublimate was deposited on the upper glass. This sublimate was insoluble in water, but readily soluble in chloroform and alcohol; with concentrated sulphuric acid it gave an immediate blood red coloration; dissolved in chloroform and the solution well agitated with an equal volume of concentrated sulphuric acid, the acid became blood red, while the chloroform was practically uncoloured; and after standing for some hours, with the exception of a very slight green fluorescence in the sulphuric acid layer, no colour changes were observed either in the chloroform or acid. The amount of material was far too minute to admit of a melting point determination, or the application of other tests, in order to establish the identity of this compound with phytosterin or analogous cholesterin-like principles. It may be remarked, however, that as phytosterin has been detected in the fat from the leaves of E. hyperificifolium (Heckel and Schlagdenhauffen, Compt. Rendus, 102, 1037), its presence in the fat of the fruit of E. Coca is not improbable. The high melting point and colour of the extract from which this principle was obtained by sublimation, indicate that it was a mixture of a colouring matter associated with other principle or principles, possessing a higher melting point than ordinary cholesterin-like bodies. All attempts to separate these associated bodies by the aid of solvents failed.

For the following description of the microscopic structure of the fruit I am indebted to Dr. Dymock, of Bombay. The fruit from without inwards presents first a single row of brick-shaped cells forming the epidermis; within them is a single row of very large cells containing a mass of starch granules and scarlet colouring matter. Next comes the pulp, composed of parenchymatous cells containing starch and granular matter. Then the shell, composed of an outer layer of stony cells like bone cells, which are of considerable length; within this layer is a row of scalariform vessels, and then several rows of pitted vessels. Then the almond, the cells of which are full of starch.

The proximate analysis of the fruit, dried in the manner already mentioned, and reduced to fine powder, was conducted according to the scheme described in Dragendorff's 'Plant Analysis.'

The petroleum ether solution was of a deep rich yellowish red colour, and left on spontaneous evaporation a deep reddish semi-solid residue, which on microscopic examination was found to contain lamellæ and needles of a claret colour. In order to ascertain whether an alkaloid had been extracted or not by the petroleum ether, the extract was redissolved and agitated with dilute hydrochloric acid; the acid removed a trace of colouring matter, but no alkaloidal principle could THIRD SERIES, No. 1045.

The aqueous soap solution, after separation of ether, was acidified with dilute sulphuric acid,