TRAGACANTHA 337 



TRAGACANTHA (Gum Tragacanth) 



Official in all editions of U. S. P., from 1820 to 1910. The 

 present official source of tragacanth is the Astragalus gum- 

 mifera or other species of Astragalus of Asia. 



This gummy exudation, gum tragacanth, is a gift of 

 Asia Minor, the shrub yielding it being very widely 

 distributed. To locate its first use exactly, would be to 

 antedate historic records. It has ever been before the 

 people in the cradle of humanity, where as a natural 

 product it has always been employed. Theophrastus 

 (633), three centuries B. C., described it and located 

 its origin. Dioscorides, a Greek writer, and Arabian 

 writers, gave it due attention. In fact, it would per- 

 haps be as difficult to locate the first use of wheat, as the 

 first use of tragacanth. 



However, until a moderately recent period, only the 

 knotty yellow or brown natural exudation was found 

 in commerce. The natives next learned that by clean- 

 ing the bases of the bushes and incising the bark with a 

 knife, ribbons of a pure white or semi-transparent 

 nature could be produced. This is now the favorite form. 



Tragacanth comes into Smyrna from the interior of 

 Asia Minor, and from Persia and Armenia. Professor 

 Thomas H. Norton, U. S. Consul at Smyrna in 1906, 

 when this writer visited the Orient, described its collec- 

 tion about Harput, Turkey. Tragacanth of commerce 

 is a conglomerate mixture, good, bad and indifferent, 

 as obtained from the caravan. In Smyrna it is sorted 

 into grades, based mainly on its color. This writer took 

 much interest in the tragacanth problem, and made 

 many photographs of the Smyrna warehouses where 

 girls were engaged in sorting tragacanth and nutgalls; 

 dealers in the one product handling also the other. 



