6W ALOJE. 



Konig gives the following aa representing the percentage 



* . * 



composition : 



Water 



• ■ » « « ff 



% m h 



19'56 



Albuminoids ... ... ... -•• 2' ^'6 



Js itrogen -free extract . • , . . . . . • 73' 60 



,A.SiI ••» ••• ••• 



ft « • > V « 



4- 3 J 



The autliors of the Pharmacograj^hia state that, ** Cold water 

 removes the mucilage, which after due concentration may be 

 precli>itated by neutral acetate of lead. This mucilage, when 

 boiled for some time with nitric acid, produces oxalic acid and 

 microscopic crystals of mucic acid, beautifully seen by polarised 

 light, soluble in boiling water and pi-ecipitating on cooling. 

 With one part of the drug and 100 parts of boiling water, 

 a thick liquid Is obtained, which affords transparent precipitates 

 with neutral acetate of lead or alcohol, in the same way as 

 Carrageen. With 50 parts of water, a transparent tasteless jelly, 

 devoid of viscosity, is produced ; in common with the mucilage 

 it furnishes mucic acid if treated with nitric acid. Micro- 

 chemical tests do not manifest albuminous matter in this plant. 

 Some chemists have regarded the jelly extracted by boiling 

 water as identical with pectin, but the fact requires proof- 

 Payen called it Gelose/' (See last Article.) Mr. H. G. Greenish 

 has examined the carbohydrates of Ceylon Moss, and found that 

 the gelatinizing constituent — the Gelose of Payen — is a carbo- 

 hydrate convertible by boiling with dilute acid into Arabinose, and 

 probably indentical with a similar constituent in the Agar-agar. In 

 addition to this body (367 per cent.), the drug contains mucilage, 

 starch, metarabin, wood gum, and cellulose. A carbohydrate 

 termed Paramylan, occurring to the extent of 6'5 per cent., is 

 also present. This substance is dissolved out by dilute acid, and 

 differs from Pararabin in being directly convertible into sugar, 

 and then yielding not Arabinose, but a fermentable sugar, 

 probably grape-sugar. {Archiv, der P/ianHacie^ xvii-, 241.) 

 The inorganic salts of Ceylon Moss consist, according to 

 O^Shaughnessy, of sulphates, phosphates and chlorides of 

 sodium and calcium, with neither iodide nor bromide. Bl^y 

 found iron^ silica and iodic salt in the ash. 



