Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/292

above, upper woolly all over. Whorls distant, 2-4-fid. Calyx ⅛-1/6in., densely woolly, cupular, teeth short, acute ; fruiting closed over the nutlets with the teeth incurved. Corolla repurple, lips very small, upper short, rounded. Nutlets enclosed in the ovoid or sub-globose calyx, usually 2, turgid, plano-convex, 1/6in. long, grey, granulate.

Use :— In the Salt Range the bruised stems are applied to the guinea-worm (Stewart).

Habitat : — Sikkim Himalaya; Fields at Lachen, altitude ll-12,000ft.

A hispid annual. Stems l-3ft. ; hairs spreading and deflexed ; Nodes very hispid, thickened. Leaves l-4in., ovate or ovate-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, coursely serrate. Calyx ½-¾in., teeth straight, equalling or exceeding the tube. Corolla ¾-1¼in., yellow and purple.

Use: — This plant deserves investigation.

Chemistry.— When the leaves are boiled with 1 per cent, hydro-chloric acid, their lower sides are covered with microscopic crystalline aggregates. Crystals of the same substance, scutellerin, separate when the aquous extract of the leaves in acidified. It is found chiefly in the leaves.

Scutellarin, C₂₁H₂₀O₁₂ , 2½ H₂0, is prepared by extracting the leaves and flowers of the plant with ten times the quantity of water, and acidifying the extract with concentrated hydro-chloric acid, the yield is less than 1 per cent. The acid filtrate from the scutellarin contains cinuamic and fumaric acids. Scutellarin crystallises in pale-yellow needles, which darken at 200°, but do not melt at 310°. Lead acetate gives red precipitate with the alcoholic solution, and ferric chloride an intense green coloration which becomes red on heating. Oxidising agents (chlorine, water, etc.) give an immediate green colour. Alkalis, ammonia and alkali carbonates dissolve it with a deep yellow colour ; these solutions reduce ammoniacal silver intrate and Fehling's solution ; acids re-precipitate scutellarin. Concentrated sulphuric acid dissolves it with a yellow colour. From the solution or suspension in acetic acid, concentrated mineral acids throw down deep yellow or orange, crystalline salts. The acetyl derivative melts and decomposes at 267.° When fused with potash, p- hydroxy benzoic acid and a substance, which crystallises in large plates, are formed.

Under the action of 30-40 per cent, sulphuric acid, it is converted into scutellarein, C₁₅H₁₀D₆ , which melts above 300°, dissolves in alkalis with a yellow colour, gives a reddish brown tint with ferric chloride, an emerald-green colour with baryta water, and a yellowish-red precipitate with lead acetate. When fused with potash, scutellarein yields p -hydroxy-benzoic