10 



THE NEW YORK JOURNAL OF PHARMACY 



more than a most exhaustive description 

 could do. It is regrettahle that a German 

 writer cannot allow himself such lux- 

 uries. 



FAT CONTAINING FRUITS. 



M. Krause, in Tropenpflanzer, reports 

 his investigations in the matter of a fruit- 

 nut obtained from a tree known as Ca- 

 narium Polyphyllum, wdiich is widely 

 distributed through Neu-Guinea. The 

 nuts are inclosed in a soft fleshy shell. 

 The nut itself consists of a kernel cov- 

 ered with a brown skin. The natives 

 have long been familiar with the prop- 

 erties of these nuts, and have employed 

 them in various ways. Other Canarium 

 species are found growing on the differ- 

 ent islands of the Malayian Archipeligo, 

 the oils of which come into commerce 

 imder the names of Canarium Oil, Java 

 Almond ()il, Huile de Canaria, Jungle 

 Balsam, etc. 



An ether extraction of the nuts yielded 

 an oil, with values as follows : 

 Weight of lo nuts, 93 Grammes 



Weight of 10 nuts, minus 



their shell, 21 Grammes 



Per cent, of fat, 68.23 



Nitrogen content of sub- 

 stance after oil removal, 9-77% 

 Congealing point of oil, i9°-20° C. 

 Melting point, 30° C. 

 Index of refraction, 1-4750 

 Degree of acid, 226 

 Saponification number, 



Koettsdoerfer, 200.2 



Iodine number, 59-74 



Reichert-Meissl number, 4.41 



The residue after extraction of the 

 oil, because of its nitrogen content is fed 

 to cattle. Poisonous or otherwise harm- 

 ful substances are not contained in the 

 oil. The oil has a light-yellow color and 



is perfectly clear. ( Hher investigators 

 have examined the oils obtained from 

 other species of the Canarium, the re- 

 sults, however, do not ditfer materially 

 from those given above for the oil ob- 

 tained from Canarium polyphyllum. 



ESTIMATION OF ALKALOIDS. 



Felix Daels, in Journ. Pharm. Chim., 

 reports on results obtained from what 

 he describes as a new method for the 

 extraction and estimation of alkaloids 

 from official drugs. Pie determines the 

 total quantity of basic substances as 

 follows : 



Ten grammes of properly dried and 

 powdered drug are placed in a 500 Cc. 

 flask, together with 200 Cc. of chloro- 

 form and 50 Cc. of 2^'/c solution of so- 

 dium hydroxide. The flask is then con- 

 nected with a reflux condenser and the 

 contents heated on a water-bath for one- 

 half hour with constant agitation. Any 

 chloroform lost by evaporation must be 

 replaced. After cooling, the liquid is 

 fdtered through a good quality of Kiesel- 

 guhr. 150 Cc. of filtrate being collected. 



To the 150 Cc. of filtrate, 30 Cc. of 

 N/io sulphuric acid V. S., and 120 Cc. 

 of water are added, and the mixture 

 thoroughly and repeatedly shaken. After 

 the liquids have separated, 100 Cc. of the 

 acid liciuid are removed by filtration and 

 titrated with N/io sodium hydroxide. 

 Ilaematoxylon as indicator is employed 

 in the case of cinchona, while in the case 

 of ipecac, nux vomica, hyoscyamus, acon- 

 ite and belladonna, iodeosin is recom- 

 mended. The 100 Cc. of acid filtrate 

 contain the alkaloidal contents of 5 

 grammes of the drug powder. The au- 

 thor used a correction factor which dif- 

 fers for the dififerent drugs and gives 

 the required figures in an appended table. 



