(Ph. B.) Boil 1 lb. of santonico, bruised, with 1 gall. of distilled water, and 5 oz. of slaked lime, in a copper or tinned iron vessel for an hour, strain through a stout cloth and express strongly. Mix the residue with 1⁄2 gall. of distilled water and 2 oz. of lime, boil for half an hour, strain and express as before. Mix the strained liquors, let them settle, decant the fluid from the deposit, evaporate to the bulk of 21⁄2 pints. To the liquor while hot add, with diligent stirring, hydrochloric acid, until the fluid has become slightly and permanently acid, and set it aside for five days that the precipitate may subside. Remove, by skimming, any oily matter which floats on the surface, and carefully decant the greater
part of the fluid from the precipitate. Collect this on a paper filter, wash it first with cold distilled water, till the washings pass colourless and nearly free from acid reaction, then with 1⁄2 fl. oz. of solution of ammonia, previously diluted with 5 oz. of distilled water, and, lastly, with cold distilled water, till the washings pass colourless. Press the filter containing the precipitate between folds of filtering paper, and dry it with a gentle heat. Scrape the dry precipitate from the filter, and mix it with 60 gr. of purified animal charcoal. Pour on them 9 fl. oz. of rectified spirit, digest for half an hour, and boil for ten minutes. Filter while hot, wash the charcoal with 1 fl. oz. of boiling spirit, and set the filtrate aside for two days in a cool dark place to crystallise. Separate the mother liquor from the crystals, and concentrate to obtain a further product. Collect the crystals, let them drain, redissolve them in 4 fl. oz. of boiling spirit, and let the solution crystallise as before. Lastly, dry the crystals on filtering paper in the dark and preserve them in a bottle protected from the light.
SAP GREEN. See Green pigments.
SAPONIFICA′TION. See Soap.
SAP′ONIN. Syn. Saponinum, L. A white, non-crystallisable substance, obtained by the action of hot diluted alcohol on the root of Saponaria officinalis (Linn.), or soapwort.
Prop., &c. Saponin is soluble in hot water, and the solution froths strongly on agitation. The smallest quantity of the powder causes violent sneezing.
SARCOCOL′LA. A gum-resin supposed to be derived from one or more plants of the natural order Renæaceæ, growing in Arabia and Persia. It somewhat resembles gum Arabic, except in being soluble in both water and alcohol, and in having a bitter-sweet taste. It was formerly used in surgery.
SAR′COSINE. C3H7O2N. A feebly basic substance, obtained by boiling kreatine for some time with a solution of pure baryta. It forms colourless, transparent plates, freely soluble in water, sparingly so in alcohol, and insoluble in ether; it may be fused and volatilised.
SARSAPARIL′LA. Syn. Sarsæ radix (B. P.), Radix sarzæ, Radix sarsaparillæ, Sarza (Ph. L. & E.), Sarsaparilla (Ph. D. & U. S.), L. “Jamaica sarza. The root of Smilax officinalis, Kunth” (Ph. L.); “and probably of other species.” (Ph. E.)
The sarsaparillas of commerce are divided by Dr Pereira into two classes:—‘Mealy sarsaparilla’ and ‘non-mealy sarsaparillas.’ In the first are placed Brazilian or Lisbon, Caraccas or gouty Vera Cruz, and Honduras; the second includes Jamaica, Lima, and true Vera Cruz.