IJ6 



STERCULIACE^. 



Sept. 3rd 1526/ The tree as well as the seeds and their uses, were at 

 length described by Benzoni/ who lived in the new world from 1541 to 

 1555. Clusius fio;ured the seeds in his " Notae in Garci^e Aromatum 



; , o — ^ — 



historiam." Antwerpire, 1582. 



Homb 



as early as 



1G95, at which time it appears to have had no particular application, 



and as an aliment. 



Q 



An essay published at Tubingen in 1735 ^ called attention to it as 

 " novum atque commendatisaimum medicamentum." A little later it 

 is mentioned by GcofFroy*' who says that it is obtained either by boiling 

 or by expressing the seeds, that it is recommended as the basis of cos- 

 metic pomades and as an application to chapped lips and nipples, and 

 to haemorrhoids. 



Production — Cacao butter is procured for use in pharmacy from 

 the manufacturers of chocolate, who obtain it by pressing the warmed 

 seeds. These in the shelled state yield from 45 to 50 per cent, of oil. 

 The natural seeds consist of about 12 per cent, of shell (testa) and 88 

 of kernels (cotyledons). 



Description— At ordinary temperatures cacao butter is a liglit 

 yellowish, opaque, dry substance, usually supplied in the form of oblong 

 tablets havmg somewhat the aspect of white Windsor soap. Though 

 unctuous to touch, it is brittle enough to break into fragments when 

 struck, exhibiting a dull waxy fracture. It has a pleasant odour of 

 chocolate, and melts in the mouth with a bland agreeable taste. Its 

 sp. gr. IS 0-9G1 ; its fusing point 20° to 30° C. 



Examined under the microscope by polarized li^^ht, cacao butter is 

 seen to consist of minute crystals. It is dissolved by 20 parts of boihng 

 absolute alcohol, but on cooling separates to such an extent that the 

 liquid retains not more than 1 per cent, in solution. The fat separated 

 alter relngeration is found to have lost most of its chocolate flavour. 

 Litmus IS not altered by the hot alcoholic solution. 



fragments 



in crystalline warts. 



„ . 1 , ^, : ,-" ■^/^"•^^ ijagments is slowly dissolved by aouuic .- 



weight of benzol in the cold (10° G), but by keeping partially separates 



m crvstalhnft wai-fQ '^ -^ t o i J '■ 



....^"^'"''^fv '-o^iPosition— The fat under notice is composed, in 

 common with others, of several bodies which by saponification furnish 

 gO^cenn and fatty acids. Among the latter occurs also oleic acid; 

 contamed in that part of the cacao butter which remains dissolved m 

 cokl alcohol as_ above stated. In fact by evaporating that solution a 

 sott iat is oUamed.^ But the chief constituents of ca?ao butter appear 

 to De stearin, palmitin, and another compound of glycerin contaimHg 



* Hist. nat. du Cacao et du Sucre,^f': 

 1719. (According to Haller, Blbl. m- ■ 



Veflia, Cartas de relacion enviadas al 



p'^. ^''^'"' ^^''««««. 1579. 



p.' 248. ^''^'^ ^^^' ^^"i^' 1 '33. 



158. ) 



" B. D. Mauchai-t prseside 



Resp. Theoph 



Butyrum Cacao. 

 mann. 



dissertatio : 



Me, 



■I raci. ae mai. luea. h- x^i^' 



See article Amygdaloi dukes. 



