AGRICULTURAL IXDUSTRIES IIt^3 



and has not yet been thoroughly studied, probably because morphologi- 

 cally it resembles a small prune. An attentive stud>' showed that this 

 drug is the fruit of the palm Serenoa sernilata Hook f., which grows in South 

 Carolina and Florida. 



According to the publications in connection with this subject the fruits 

 of Serenoa sernilata are used to prepare an extract, the " Saw palmetto ", 

 used chiefly in North America as a remedy for pulmonary diseases, but 

 they do not furnish other particulars with regard to this drug. The writers 

 therefore proposed to study it after obtaining fruits of Serenoa from 

 North America and some " Saw palmetto ". They describe in detail the 

 results of their researches. 



The fruit is oval, contains a single seed and weighs from 1.5 to 3 gr. 

 Its pericarp, which is clearly divided into epicarp, mesocarp and endocarp, 

 contains the greater part of the aromatic substances. The physical com- 

 position of the fruit is as follows : 



I Epicarp 36 °o 



Pericarp Mesocarp 16 



/ Endocarp ic 



Seed 3^ 



The chemical composition of the pericarp is as follows : 



Water i5-4i "i, 



Drj' matter 84.59 



Mineral matter 5/4 



Chlorides such as J\a CI) 1.52 



Fat (ether extract) . 26.75 



Invert-sugar 28.20 



E-'rtract free from sugar and soluble in 



water 16.34 



Insoluble matter i3-3o 



More than one fourth of the weight of the ]:>ericarp is therefore made 

 up of fatty matter. 



The strong rancid odour of the pericarp at once suggested that its fat 

 contains a large quantity of free acids. It was in point of fact found that 

 the smell and state are chiefly due to free acids, probably caproic acid and 

 other acids of low molecular weight. The crude fat extracted by ether is 

 an oil of dark orange colour, yielding on analysis the following results : 



Refractive index at to degrees 31.2 



Iodine inde.x 44 i 



Acid index 201.4 



Saponification index 229.0 



R.oichert-Meissl inckx 9.5 



The crude fat contains : 75 % of fatty acids and 25 % of neutral fat. 



This analysis suggests the presence of an enzyme decomposing th6 



fatty substances in the pericarp of Serenoa. Studies carried out with a 



