32 VEGETABLE DRUGS WITHOUT ORGANIC STRUCTURE. 



included. These are: Peach, Cherry, Plum, Prune, 

 Apricot, and Mandel gums. 



(3) Bassorin gums: These consist mainly of bassorin 

 with some gum allied to arabin. These are Tragacanth, 

 Kuter, Bassora, Cocos, Chagnal, and Moringa gums. 



(4) Bassorin and Cerasin gums: Mixture of these two 

 gums. Gum of Cochlospermum gossypium. 



THE ACACIA GUMS. 



The acacia gums are the Arabian, Senegal, Cape, North, 

 East and West African, and East Indian varieties. The 

 acacias form a family, as it were, of gums, many of which 

 vary widely the one from the other. The discussion of 

 the different species which yield the numerous varieties is 

 beyond the scope of the present work.* The United 

 States Pharmacopoeia recognizes the following: 



ACACIA. GUM ARABIC. 



A gummy exudation from Acacia Senegal, Willd. In 

 roundish tears of various sizes, or broken into angular 

 fragments, with a glass-like, sometimes iridescent frac- 

 ture, opaque with numerous fissures, but transparent 

 and nearly colorless in thin pieces, nearly inodorous, 

 taste insipid, mucilaginous; insoluble in alcohol, but 

 soluble in water, forming a thick, mucilaginous liquid. 



Acacia Senegal is a native of Egypt rather than of 

 Arabia, growing in the fertile valleys of the Nile and of 

 Senegambia. Probably it is spread well into Central 

 Africa. In and about the same regions there are a large 

 number of species of Acacia, most of which yield gums. 

 In the main, however, most of the gums of commerce 

 are derived from A. Senegal. 



The gum is obtained from plants eight to forty years 



* G. Vee: Etude sur les gommes dites arabiques. These Ecole de 

 Pharmacie de Paris, 1888. 



