I 



204 LEGUMINOSiE. 



is plentifully scattered throrighout the Montana around Plato and otlitr 

 small ports on the right bank of the Magdalena. He states that he 

 saw at least 1,500 tb. of the drug on its way for exportation. From 

 another source, we know that it is largely collected in the valley of the 

 Sinu, and in the forests lying between that river and Cauca. None is 

 collected in Venezuela. 



Description— Balsam of Tolu freshly imported is a light brown, 

 sbw-ilowing resin, soft enough to be impressible with the finger, hut 

 viscid on the surface.' By keeping, it gradually hardens so as to he 

 brittle in cold weather, but it is easily softened by the warmth of the 

 hand. Thin layers show it to be quite transparent and of a yellowish 

 brown hue. It has a very agreeable and delicate odour, suggestive of 

 benzoin oi- vanilla, especially perceptible when the resin is warmed, or 

 when its solution in spirit is allowed to evaporate on paper. Its taste 

 IS slightly aromatic with a barely j^erceptible acidity, though its 

 alcoholic solution decidedly reddens litmus. 



In very old specimens, such as those which during the last century 

 reached Europe in little calabashes =^ of the size and shape of an 

 orange, the balsam is brittle and pulverulent, and exhibits when broken 

 a sparkling, crystalline surface. This old balsam is of a fine deep 

 amber tint and superior fragrance. 



When Balsam of Tolu is pressed between two warmed plates of glass 

 so as to obtain it in a thin even layer, and then examined with a lens, 

 It exhibits an abundance of crystals of cinnamic acid. Balsam of Tolo 

 dissolves easily and completely in glacial acetic acid, acetone, alcohol, 

 chloroform or solution of caustic potash ; it is less soluble in ether, 

 scarcely at all in volatile oils, and not in benzol or bisulphide of carbon. 

 ine solution in acetone is devoid of rotatory power in polarized light. 



Chemical Composition— The balsam consists partly of an 

 amorphous resin, not soluble in bisulphide of carbon, which is supposed 

 to be the same as the dark resin precipitated by the bisulphide ivm 

 balsam of Peru. Scharling (1856) assigned the formula C'«H^"0^ to that 



"^ .fr^T 1 ^^■'^''^ ^^^^""^ i« soluble in potash. , 



Itiolu balsam is boiled with water, it yields to it cinnamic and 



benzoic acid, whiph wq ■Ko,r^ /tottn c..^^..'L J„J :^ .^.^ovofinffby 



repeated recrystallization from water : we have before us good speci- 

 'wnl f ^ ^^""^ showing not only different melting points (183° 0. and 

 \ :\ } ^^ *° °^^' crystals of benzoic acid, isolated from the balsam 

 as stated above, we find that they also do not evolve bitter almond oil 

 when mixed with sulphuric acid and chromate of potassium. The acids 

 may also be removed by boiling bisulphide of carbon. 



i^usse ^ showed that henzylic ethers of both benzoic and cinnaniic 

 ueid are also constituents of the balsam, the cinnamate of benzyl being 

 present in larger quantity. 



T /^''ra,!lil^^^^'"S *^« balsam with water, it affords 1 per cent, o 

 oxvaen ?^:. ^°^^^"^ '""^ ^^^"^ 170° a This liquid rapidly absorb 

 oxygen from the air. By destructive distillation, the balsam affords the 



1878.— F A F York.— Sept. Basle of 1647. 



F. A. F. 



Berichie der Deufschcn Chemischen W^ 



•sdhchaft, 1876. 833. 



