ICE PLANT n.
A plant (Mesembryanthemum crystallinum), sprinkled with pellucid, watery vesicles, which glisten like ice. It is native along the Mediterranean, in the Canaries, and in South Africa. Its juice is said to be demulcent and diuretic; its ashes are used in Spain in making glass. Ice-skater = one who skates on ice wearing a…
INDIAN n.
r, burning with a brilliant white light. -- Indian grass (Bot.), a coarse, high grass (Chrysopogon nutans), common in the southern portions of the United States; wood grass. Gray. -- Indian hemp. (Bot.) (a) A plant of the genus Apocynum (A. cannabinum), having a milky juice, and a tough, fibrous bark, whence the name…
INDIGO a.
s obtained as a dark blue earthy powder, with a reddish luster, C16H10N2O2, which may be crystallized by sublimation. Indigo blue is also made from artificial amido cinnamic acid, and from artificial isatine; and these methods are of great commercial importance. Called also indigotin. (b) A dark, dull blue color like t…
INDOL n.
A white, crystalline substance, C8H7N, obtained from blue indigo, and almost all indigo derivatives, by a process of reduction. It is also formed from albuminous matter, together with skatol, by putrefaction, and by fusion with caustic potash, and is present in human excrement, as well as in the intestinal canal of som…
INOSITE n.
A white crystalline substance with a sweet taste, found in certain animal tissues and fluids, particularly in the muscles of the heart and lungs, also in some plants, as in unripe pease, beans, potato sprouts, etc. Called also phaseomannite.
INULIN n.
la, Helianthus, Campanula, etc., and is extracted by solution as a tasteless, white, semicrystalline substance, resembling starch, with which it is isomeric. It is intermediate in nature between starch and sugar. Called also dahlin, helenin, alantin, etc.