ARTICLE III. 



A CHEMICAL STUDY OF YUCCA ANGUSTIFOLIA.* 



BY H. C. DE S. ABBOTT. 



Read before the American Philosophical Society, December i8, 1885 



This plant is well known in the West as the " soap-weed." It grows very abun- 

 dantly in most of the Western States and Territories. It has attracted the attention 

 of botanists, and it is a plant of interest on account of the many uses to which it has 

 been put in the countries where it is found. 



The results noted in this paper are based upon a first and introductory chemical 

 analysis of the Y'ucca. Previously, little has been studied of its chemistry. It is 

 briefly mentioned in the work of a French writer. Dr. Georges Pennetier ; f also, in a 

 I)aper on the study of manganese found in the ash of plants in which M. Maumene 

 states that the ash of the Yucca contains manganese.|. He does not name what spe- 

 cies of Yucca was examined. The former writer gives the micro-chemical characters 

 of the action of iodine and sulphuric acid, dilute chromic acid, and cuprammonia on 

 the fibres of the Yucca angustifoUa. 



The specunens of Yucca used in these analyses were of large growth and in good 

 condition. The entire plant was examined, and a separate study made of the bark and 

 wood of the root, and of the green leaf and the yellow basal part. The roots were air- 

 dried, freed from adherent dust, reduced to a very fine powder, and passed through a 

 !N"o. 80 sieve. The leaves were less finely powdered. 



Dragendortf's scheme for plant analysis§ has been generally followed. Ten 

 grams of the air-dried powder were used for the preliminary examination of soluble 

 substances. For every gi-am of the powder, ten c. c. of the solvents were em- 

 ployed. An additional quantity of the powder was prepared for special purposes. 

 Five grams of the air-dried powder were dried, in a hot-air oven, at a temperature 



* An abstract of this paper was read befere the Chemical Sectiou of the American Association for the Advancc- 

 mriil of Science, at Ann Arbor, Michigan, Angnst 38, 18S5. 



fLecjons Bur les Matieres Premieres Organiqnes, Paris, 1881, p. 44f>. 



X M. E. .1. Maumene, Bui. de la Soci6le Chimique de Paris. Tome xlii, p. 30.5. 



§ Plant Analysis. Qualitative and Quantitative, by G. Dragendorff. Translated from the German by Henry 

 Greenish, London, 1884. 



