G8G 



LILIACE^. 



Mossel Bay, and the highest, lUl, at Swellendam. The drug is shipped 

 from Cape Town, Mossel Bay and Algoa Bay. 



5. Natal Aloes — Aloes is also imported from Natal, and since 1870 

 in considerable quantity. Most of it is of an hepatic kind and com- 

 pletely unlike the ordinary Cape aloes, inasmuch as it is of a greyish- 

 brown and very opaque. Moreover it contains a crystalline principle 

 which has been found in no other sort of aloes. 



The drug is manufactured in the upper districts of Natal, between 

 Pietermaritzburg and the Quathlamba mountains, especially in tlie 

 Umvoti and Mooi River Counties, at an elevation of 2000 to 4000 feet 

 above the sea. The plant used is a large aloe which has not yet been 

 botanically identified. The people who make the drug are British and 

 Dutch settlers, employing Kaffir labourers. The process is not very 

 ditierent from that followed in making Cape aloes, but is conducted with 

 more nitelligence. The leaves are cut obliquely into slices, and allowed 

 to exude their juice in the hot sunshine. The juice is then boiled down 

 in iron pots, some care being taken to prevent burning, by stirring the 

 liquid as It becomes thick. The drug while still hot, is poured into 

 wooden cases, in which it is shipped to Europe.' The exports from the 

 colony have been as follows :— 2 



1868 1869 1870 1871 1872 

 none 38 cwt. 646 cwt. 372 cwt. 501 cwt. 



Chemical Composition— All kinds of aloes have an odour of the 

 same character and a bitter disagreeable taste. The odour which is 

 otten not unpleasant, especially in Socotrine aloes, is due to a volatile 

 OTi, which the drug contains only in minute proportion. T. and H. 

 ^mit lot Edinburgh, who contributed a specimen of it to the Vienna 

 ^-.xlnbition of 1873, inform us that they obtained it by subjecting to 

 distillation with water 400 lb. of aloes, which quantity they estimate to 

 nave yielded about an ounce. The oil is stated in a letter we have 

 received fi-pm them, to be a mobile pale yellow liquid, of sp. gr. 0863. 

 with a boding point of 260-271° C. 



Pure aloes dissolves easily in spirit of wine with the exception of a 

 lew nocculi ; it is insoluble in chloroform and bisulphide of carbon, as 

 wen as m the so-called petroleum ether, the most volatile portion ot 

 t.^.TTiF.n^o'^?^''""- ^^^^ «P- &■■ ^^ fine transparent fragments of aloes, 

 fnnn 1 'I ^ ^' ^""^ ^^eighcd iu thc kst-uamed fluid at 16° C, was 

 lounfi by one of us (F.) to be 1-364 ; showing that aloes is much more 



Jh. ni °nn . "i T^^ ""^ ^^^ ^'^■'^^n^' ^^hich seldom have a higher sp. gr- 



W.f /V° \^- ^° ^^^e^' aloes dissolves completely only when 



leaiea Un cooling, the aqueous solution, whether concentrated or 



i-nfn k"'' ^""'^'^ ^y ^^^ separation of resinous drops, which unite 

 afw c °'''';-"'''''r~*^^ so-called Resin of Alocs.^ The clear solution, 

 CO nm!?yi'T ""^ ^^^' substance, has a slightly acid reaction ; it i« 

 tSod .^.n •v^'''''''' ^^ ^^"^^1^«> ^I'^ck by ferHc chloride, and is precii)!; 

 tated yeilowish-grey by neutral lead acetate. Cold water dissolves about 



of lSmaHtb«r!)^/-^^-K'^¥""^"'^«'l-' ' ^^-^^1° ^y tlie pliannacopoeia process from 



formation aa to tf^ - ^ ^r^oing iu- commercial Socotrine aloes contaimr.gabout 



drug. *^ *^' manufacture of this 14 per cent, of water, was found froni the 



- Blue Books fnr th^ n 1 ^ ,, record of five experiments, in which \i- • 



1868, 1869. TstC isn 1872^ ^/^^«^«^/«- were used, to bi62-7 per cent, Barbados 



' The avera/'e vipll ' .f ^^o^s, which isalways much drier, affoideu 



^ yieia of aqueous extract on an average 80 per cent. 



