APPENDIX. 113 



HTegularly- disposed transverse markings of a lighter colour are 

 observed on the surface. The transverse section of the root exhibits 

 a central hard woody centre of a yellowish colour, and several similar 

 but smaller bundles are scattered throughout the waxy-looking 

 parenchyma of the cortical portion. In the bazars the drug is sold 

 in the shape of circular discs like calumba root, having been sliced 

 transversely in a fresh state and allowed to diy in the sun. Sections 

 of the root examined by the microscope exhibited no starch or crys- 

 talline matters in the cells, but yellow granular matter and oil 

 globules were present. The central woody column and woody 

 bundles in the cortical portion were made up of large lignified cells. 

 The taste is sweet and mawkish, and there is no distinctive odour as 

 there is in liquorice root. 



Chemkal cotnpositton. — ^The finely powdered root lost 11 -26 per 

 cent, of moisture, and left 6*Q per cent, of mineral matter when 

 ignited. The ether extract amounted to 4' 2 2 per cent., and consisted 

 of fatty acids of a brownish colour and fluid consistence. After 

 standing a few days, white crystals formed, which were collected and 

 pressed between folds of blotting paper, and recrj^stallised from boil- 

 ing alcohol. This insoluble portion had the melting point (62° C. 

 and properties of palmitic acid. Oleic acid was present in the fluid 

 portion of the extract. 

 ' The alcoholic extract contained a large quantity of ciystalline 

 saccharine matter, which reduced Fehling's solution to a very slight 

 extent. A small quantity of an organic acid was^ removed from sola 

 tion by plumbic acetate, but no substance similar to glycyrrhizin 

 could be detected. The absence of an alkaloidal principle was proved 

 after the application of the usual reagents. 



The aqueous extract contained an additional quantity of sugar, 

 and when heated to the boiling point threw out an abundance of white 

 flocks of albumin, A larger quantity of the root was exhausted 

 directly with water, the extract heated to septate the insoluble 

 albumin, and filtered. The syrup was then boiled in an inverted 

 condenser with 1 per cent, sulphuric acid for three hours. The 

 sulphuric acid was removed with barium hydrate solution, and the 

 sugar in the syrup estimated A^ith Fehling's test indicated the 

 •presence of 41-2 per ceni of invert sugar. This sugar showed 

 no disposition to crystallise, and when examined in a Laurent « 

 Jpolariscope, it had no action on polarised light. 



