32G ' UMBELLIFEU^. 



4 



for it are the desert plains about Yezdikbast, between Ispahan aud 

 Shiraz. 



Description — Ammoniacum occurs in dry grains or tears of roundish 

 form, from the size of a small pea to that of a cherry, or in nodiilav 

 lumps. They are externally of a pale creamy yellow, opaque and 

 milky-white within. By long keeping, the outer colour darkens to a 

 cinnamon-brown. Ammoniacum is brittle, showing when broken a dull 

 waxy lustre, but it easily softens with warmth. It has a bitter acrid 

 taste, and a peculiar, characteristic, non -alliaceous odour. It readily 

 forms a white emulsion when triturated with water. It is coloured 

 yellow by caustic potash. Hypochlorites, as common bleaching powder, 

 give it a bright orange hue, while they do not affect the Morocco drug. 



Ammoniacum is obtained from the mature plant, the ripe mericarps 

 of which, f of an inch in length, are often found sticking to the tears. 

 By pressure the tears agglutinate into a compact mass, which is the 

 Lump Ammoniacum of the druggists. It is generally less pure than the 

 detached grains, and fetches a lower price. 



Chemical Composition — Ammoniacum is a mixture of volatile 

 oil \vith resin and gum. We obtained only ^ per cent, of oil which we 

 find to be dextrogyrate ; we failed in obtaining terpin (see Galbanum, p. 

 322) from it. The oil has the precise odour of the drug, contains, accord- 

 ing to our experiments, no sulphur ; a similar observation was made by 

 Przcciszewski.^ Vigier^ asserts that it blackens silver, and that after 

 oxidation with nitric acid, he detected in it sulphuric acid. He states 

 that, with hydrochloric acid, the oil acquires a fine violet tint passing 

 by all shades to black ; we failed in obtaining this coloration. By 

 diluting the oil with bisulphide of carbon, and then adding mineral acids, 

 we observed only yellow colorations. The oil diluted with alcohol 

 acquires a reddish hue by ferric chloride. 



The resin ammoniacum usually amounts to about 70 per cent, 

 meciszewski asserts that the indifferent resin when heated yields sul- 

 phuretted hydrogen. Our own experiments failed to show the presence 

 ot sulphur m the crude drug ; and the same negative result has been 

 more recently obtained in some careful experiments by Moss.' ^\ater 

 wlien boiled with the resin acquires a yellow hue and slightly acid reaction: 



the /iquid assumes an intense red coloration on addition of feme 

 chloride. 



Unlike the gum resin of allied plants, ammoniacum yields no u^i- 

 belhferone. When melted with caustic potash it affords a httle 

 resorcm. *^ 



The mucilaginous matter of the drug consists of a gum readily 

 soluble in wafpr nr,ri o c,^„n ,-. ^1 . 1 ./•_„ :--ohible part; 



soluble in water and a smaller quantity of about i of an insoluble part, 

 no doubt identical with that occurring in asafcetida and gal^^'f^f^ 

 levog^rr''''^ '"''' ""^ ^^'^ S^°' ^^ ammoniacum is very slightly 



Gul^h^"'^'"^!";;^"''"^"^^^"^ i« sl^ipped to Europe from the Persian 

 1871 79 ^^ °^ ?'^^^^^- ^^^ e^Poi-ti from the latter place in the year 



United 



orpat, 18Cl' ^"»"^«««"^ ^>^ Opopancu, Paris, 1869. 93. „„ ,,,, 7^1. 



3 PJiarm. Journ. March 29, i»''^- 



