S CI TA MINEJE. 43 9 



used for a variety of purposes, as for flavouring tlie liqueur 

 called Nadoiha, it is also employed by brewers, and to impart 

 a pungent flavour to vinegar, a use noticed by Pomet so long 

 ago as 1694. As a popular medicine and spice, it is mucb sold 

 in Livonia, Estbonia, and in Central Russia. It is also in 

 requisition as a cattle medicine, and all over Europe there is 

 a small consumption of it in regular medicine [Hanhury). 

 Irvine [Med. Topog. of A jmeer, -p. 171) says tbat the natives 

 add Kulijan to bazar spirit to make it more intoxicating. 



Description. — The dried rblzomes are about as tbick aa 

 the little finger or often less. They have evidently been cut into 

 short lengths ( 2 to 3 inches) while fresh ; many of the pieces 

 are branched, and all are marked by numerous circular ridges 

 of a light colour. The external surface of the rhizome is of a 

 deep reddish-brown, the interior pale red, hard and tough; 

 the odour is aromatic and the taste hot and spicy. 



Microscopic structure.— The bulk of the rhizome consists of 

 a uniform parenchyma traversed by fibro-vascular bundles, 

 some of the parenchyme cells are full of resin and essential oil, 

 but most of them contain large starch grains of an elongated or 

 club-shaped form. 



Chemical com.position. — Galangal contains from f to J per 

 cent, of an essential oil, which is the odorous principle ; according 



^!l, its formula is C'°H'^0. Brandos extracted from 

 Galangal with ether a neutral, inodorous, tasteless, crystalline 



Kjeiwpfi 



following 



compounds from the root: Kdmpheridj C'^H'^O^H-O, 

 crystallizing ia yellowish needles (m. p. 221°J, which are 

 slightly soluble in water, ether and benzine, freely soluble in 

 alcohol, soluble in alkalies to an intensely yellow solution, and 

 in concentrated sulphuric acid to a yellow solution with a strong 

 blue fluorescence. Galangin, C ' ^H ' "0 "^11- 0, crj-stallizing from 

 its solution in aqueous alcohol in yellowish-white needles 

 (m. p. 214°). The reactions of this body are very similar to 

 those of kuuq>herid ; its solution in concentrated sulphuric acid, 

 however, is non-fluorescent. 



