Note 329 — PART VI.—ALKALOIDS AND POISONOUS VEGETABLE PRINCIPLES SEPARATED FOR THE MOST PART BY ALCOHOLIC SOLVENTS.

Caustic potash also gives characteristic colours with certain alkaloids. Out of seventy-two alkaloids (using 0·5 mgrm.), the following alone gave characteristic colours when fused with KHO:—Quinine, grass-green, and peculiar odour; quinidine, becoming yellower and finally brown; cinchonine, at first brownish-red to violet, with green edges, later, bluish-green; cinchonidine, blue passing into grey; cocaine, greenish-yellow, turning to blue, and then dirty red on strong heating.—W. Lenz, Zeit. f. anal. Chem., 25, 29-32.