STYRAX LIQUIDUS. 275 



water, and a little more carbonate of sodium than the quantity required 

 for saturation are mixed. The bromhydrocinnamate of sodium partly 



splits up immediately, even at , according to the tollowing equation 



C«H^CHlCHBr.COONa = CO^ + NaBr + C^ff .CH.CHl 



Bromhydrocinnamate of sodium. StyroL 



24 parts of bromhydrocinnamic acid, reciystallized from boilini^ 



affords as inucli as this. 



7 



all 



Styrol has been discovered in Styrax, but is not regularly, and at 



events to a minute amount only, found in the drug of the present 

 day AVe have no explanation for the strange fact that it was appar- 

 ently more abundantly met with in former times. 



Lastly there has been found in Liquid Storax, by J. H. van t'Hoff 

 (187G), about 0-4 per cent, of an essential oil, probably G''WO ; MiUer 

 also pointed out a compound ether of probably the same (alcoholic) 

 substance as occurring in styrax, 



^ By the action of oxidizing agents, as nitric or chromic acids, or per- 

 oxide of lead, the cinnamyl compounds are easily reduced, carbonic acid 

 and water being evolved ; and at the same time benzoic acid, bitter 

 almond oil, and hydrocyanic acid are produced. These compounds are 

 in fact abundantly evolved when 6 parts of Liquid Storax are gently 

 warmed with 1 p. of caustic soda, and then mixed with 3 p. of perman- 

 ganate of potassium dissolved in 20 p. of water. 



We have examined several samples of Liquid Storax of average 

 quality, and found by exposure of small quantities to the heat of the 

 steam bath, that it lost from 10 to 20 per cent, of water. The remainder 

 treated with alcohol yielded a residue amounting to 13 to 18 per cent., 

 consisting chiefly of fragments of bark and inorganic impurities. The 

 percentage of the diTig soluble in alcohol, to which is due its therapeutic 

 J'alue, thus amounts to 56 to 72. This part, as may be inferred from 

 the foregoing statements, consists chiefly of storesin, the various com- 

 pound ethers above mentioned, of cinnamic acid and of -^— ^^" ^^ 

 uoubt in greatly varying proportions. 



styr 



Commerce 



was 



f^ Vampbell in 1855 as about 490 cwt. for the districts of Giova and 

 UUa, and 300 cwt. for those of Marmorizza and Iscrennrak. The drug is 



Al 



^ome IS also packed with a certain proportion of water m goat-sknis, 

 and sent either by boats or overland to Sniyi-na, where it is transferred 

 ^ barrels and shipped mostly to Trieste. 



-ihe chief consumption of Liquid Storax would appear to be m 

 ^(iia and China. In the fiscal year 1866-67, Bombay imported 319 

 c^vt. from the Red Sea. Liquid Storax is seldom seen in the London 

 ^rug-sales. ^ 



Uses— Liquid Storax, which the British Fhai-macopoeia directs to 



injrredient 



. --*..x^^L Mj auiuuon m spirit oi wiuu, is a-xx ni^xw^^v.- - 



J^liioned preparations but is hardly ever prescribed on its own account. 



by Pastau 



^iSGo), as an external application for the cure of scabies, for which 

 P^^i'pose it is mixed with linseed oil and now largely used. 



