Senegenin, the sapogenin from Polygala senega has been shown to contain chlorine; it has the empirical formula C30H4506Cl. The oxygen atoms, contrary to earlier work, are contained in two carboxyl groups and two secondary hydroxyl groups. There is one isolated ethylenic linkage. The environment of the hydroxylic functions and one carboxyl group has been shown t o be as in (XI).Of the known triterpenoids of undetermined constitution remaining, senegenin has a claim to outstanding interest. Investigations directed to a study of the saponin of Polygala senega have spread over many years, but, as mentioned by Simonsen and Ross (I), such "investigations. . . have given rise to very divergent results". I t is this confusion, and its present clarification, which exculpates us from a charge of literary proiiferation in the presentation of incomplete work.Although senega extract has been used medicinally for some time, chiefly as a n expectorant (however, see ref.2 ) , the first results of chemical importance were obtained by Wedekind and Krecke (3). They isolated, by acid hydrolysis of the saponin, a product to which they assigned the formula C26H4406. I t contained two hydroxyl groups, as indicated by the formation of a diacetate, and gave a dimethyl ester.A more extensive study was later reported by Jacobs and Isler (4), who observed the presence of two crystalline sapogenins. T h a t of bwer solubility appeared to be senegenin, although the constants differed somewhat from those of Wedekind and Krecke: the diacetate, in particular, melted a t a much higher temperature. The empirical formula C30H4608 or C30H4408 was proposed, and evidence for an isolated ethylenic linkage found in a weak tetranitromethane test. Titration with alkali indicated the presence of two carboxyl groups (again confirmed by the preparation of a non-crystalline dimethyl ester) and the presence of a lactone was inferred by the consumption of a third equivalent of alkali on heating. Senegenin could not be recovered from the acidified hydrolysis mixture.The second sapogenin isolated from senega root by Jacobs and Isler was an acid, m.p. 257", which appeared to have the empirical formula C31H.5006 or C31H4806. This substance also gave a positive reaction with tetranitromethane, and was shown to give a diacetate. Hydrolysis revealed it to be the monoethyl ester of a dibasic acid. Both the sapogenins gave, on selenium dehydrogenation, the same substituted picene obtained previously from such triterpenoids as oleanolic acid, and shown to be ( 5 ) 1,8-dimethylpicene: results which strongly supported the supposition of Jacobs and Isler that they were dealing with a triterpenoid.