8
28TH JUNE 1893, Nos. 576, 576A, 576B, 576C, REVENUE.
From D. HOOPER, Esq., Government Quinologist, to the Government Botanist and Director
of the Cinchona Plantations, Nilgiris, dated Ootacamund, 6th May 1893.
I have the honour to forward the following report on the analytical work conducted in
the laboratory during the year ending 31st March 1893.
2. Among the barks analysed during the year there have not been many of special interest
or of very high value. A sample of crown bark from Dodabetta yielded 5.55 per cent. of
sulphate of quinine, which is above the average of the bark used in the factory obtained from
that plantation. A specimen of Ba g o t a b a r k
f r o m a n e s t a t e n e a r D o d a b e t t a b e l o n g i n g t o
General Jennings gave 5.81 per cent. of sulphate. The age of this tree was six years and it
is supposed to be a variety of the Santa Fé or soft Columbian bark. The following is a full
analysis of the bark :—
Q uinine
.
.
.
4.32
C inchonidine . . .
.96
Quinidine . . .
Trace
Cinchonine . . .
.68
Amorphous . . .
.88
3. everal hybrid barks were analysed, some grown in poor soil and others in trenched
and manured land. The soils in which these trees grew were also examined chemically, and
the results are quoted in the Director's report, together with his remarks on their cultivation
and treatment.
4. The quinine and febrifuge from the factory at Nedivattam have been good in composi-
tion and appearance, and the chemicals used in their manufacture have been tested from time
to time as to their purity.
5. When a manure pit, made near a cinchona tree, is examined a few months after it has
been filled, it will be found to have an abundance of feeding rootlets in it. Whereas a tree
grown in poor soil will produce these rootlets very sparingly. This difference caused me to
investigate the composition of this portion of the plant under these conditions and to see if
the rootlets were richer in alkaloids when growing in rich soil, or poorer in alkaloids when
grown in poor soil. I have already shown in former reports that the bark of cinchona trees,
whether old or young, is susceptible to the influence of manure ; but up to the present we
have had no experiments to show how this influence is exerted in the roots. The rootlets of
Cinchona officinalis were first examined. The bearded roots from a manured tree were so
massive that it required the roots of about four trees from poor soil to make up an equal
weight. The two samples were separately dried and reduced to a fine powder, and, on analysis,
they yielded the following results :—
Rootlets from
poor soil.
Rootlets from
manured soil.
Alkaloids . . .
2 . 5 6
2.82
Tannin and cinchona red . . .
16.86
18.02
Sugar and organic acid. . .
2.26
3.82
Fibre . . .
4 9 . 0 9
49.53
Ash . . .
8.13
6.93
Water . . .
5.74
5.87
The alkaloids were composed as under :—
Rootlets from
poor soil.
Rootlets from
manured soil.
Quinidine . . .
.65
.65
Cinchonine . . .
1.27
1.58
Amorphous . . .
.64
.59
Total . . .
2.56
2.82
The results of these analyses show that there is very little difference in the composition of
the small fibrous roots of an officinalis tree, whether grown in the ordinary or manured soil.
Before drawing conclusions from this experiment, I obtained samples of roots from succirubra
trees. The first sample was from rich soil, and there was an abundance of bearded rootlets ;
the second sample, from a tree growing in a poor plot of land, contained so few of these rootlets