282 COMPOSITZ. 
The drug has the faint aromatic odour of pellitory, but is 
almost free from pungency. 
Chemical composition.—A proximate analysis of the powdered 
root separated, ether extract 1:0, alcoholic extract 8°6, water 
extract 25°1, crude fibre 56°9, and ash 6°8 parts in one hun- 
dred. The ether extract, having a distinct odour of chaul- 
moogra oil, was evaporated to dryness and digested in rectified 
spirit for several months; this separated a whitish insoluble 
granular fatty substance, and a light reddish brown liquid. 
The insoluble portion examined under a microscope was seen 
to consist of radiating crystalline tufts of wax, tasteless, and 
neutral in reaction, dissolving to some extent in boiling alcohol 
and solidifying in the cold; soluble in petroleum ether; it 
softened a little above 70°; at the temperature of boiling water 
it melted to a brown liquid, and with a sufficient heat, it burnt 
away on platinum foil witha smoky flame. The soluble ‘por- 
tion of the ether extract was evaporated, and the fatty residue 
was acid in reaction, and produced a numbing sensation on 
the tongue and at the same time caused a flow of saliva. 
Petroleum ether removed a fatty acid from this residue and 
left a soft brown resin. This resin had the characters of 
pyrethrin. Besides its action on the tongue, it was soluble in 
ether, proof spirit, chloroform and bisulphide of carbon and 
insoluble in caustic and carbonated alkalies. Nitric acid decom- 
posed it with evolution of gas. Sulphuric acid dissolyed it 
with a red-brown colour and the mixture developed an odour 
of butyric acid. 
The alcoholic extract of the root contained. an organic acid, 
some saccharine matter reducing Fehling’s test, but no alkaloid. 
‘The acid was deepened in.colour with ferric chloride, gave an 
orange precipitate with plumbic acetate, but produced no 
deposit in solution of gelatine, 
The water extract contained 15 per cent, of a carbohydrate 
forming a pulverulent precipitate with three volumes of alcohol. 
Sweet Pellitory thus contains very little pyrethrin compared 
_ with the amount found in the Pellitory of Spain, and less inulin. 
* 
