Volltext Seite (XML)
THE CHEMICAL GAZETTE. No. CCCXCVI.—April 15, 1859. SCIENTIFIC AND MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY. On Sarcine. By A. Strecker. The mother-liquor left in the preparation of creatine by Liebig’s method, contains, as is well known, creatinine, inosic acid, and pa- ralactic acid. Besides these bodies, Scherer subsequently found inosite and volatile fatty acids. It was to be expected that by the con tinuation of investigations other definite bodies would be obtained. The author studied the behaviour of metallic salts towards the mother-liquor of creatine, and found that the body previously de nominated sarcine by him, may be thrown down from it by several metallic salts. If the mother-liquor of creatine be diluted with water, mixed with a solution of acetate of copper and boiled, a precipitate is pro duced containing oxide of copper and sarcine. This precipitate, when suspended in water, may be decomposed by sulphuretted hy drogen. The filtered solution then furnishes sarcine on evaporation. If this be again dissolved in water, treated with oxide of lead, which is again removed by sulphuretted hydrogen, and then evaporated, the sarcine is obtained quite pure. From the lead precipitate, a further portion of sarcine may be obtained by decomposition with sulphuretted hydrogen; this is likewise white, or but little coloured, the sulphuret of lead fixing the colouring matter. As, however, the sulphuret of lead also retains a portion of sarcine, it is best to treat it finally with ammonia, by which means the sarcine is all recovered in solution, and in a solid form by evaporation. Sarcine, C 10 H 4 N 4 O 2 , separates on the cooling of the aqueous solution according to circumstances, either in flakes, which under the microscope appear as an accumulation of crystals, or in solid crusts and exfoliating scales. It dissolves in 300 parts of cold and 78 parts of boiling water, and in 900 parts of boiling alcohol. It dis solves more readily in acids, especially dilute muriatic acid, and Chem. Gaz. 1859. i