A CHEMICAL STUDY OF YUCCA ANGUSTIFOLIA 1 



THIS plant is well known in the West as the "soapweed." 

 It grows very abundantly in most of the Western States and 

 territories. It has attracted the attention of botanists, and 

 is a plant of interest on account of the many uses to which it 

 has been put in the countries where it is found. 



The results noted in this paper are based upon a first and 

 introductory chemical analysis of the Yucca. Previously, little 

 has been studied of its chemistry. It is briefly mentioned in 

 the work of a French writer, Dr. Georges Pennetier; 2 also, 

 in a paper on the study of manganese found in the ash of plants, 

 in which M. Maumene states that the ash of the Yucca con- 

 tains manganese. 3 He does not name what species of Yucca 

 was examined. The former writer gives the micro-chemical 

 characters of the action of iodine and sulphuric acid, dilute 

 chromic acid, and cuprammonia on the fibres of the Yucca 

 angustifolia. 



The specimens of Yucca used in these analyses were of large 

 growth and in good condition. The entire plant was examined, 

 and a separate study made of the bark and wood of the root, 

 and of the green leaf and the yellow basal part. The roots 

 were air-dried, freed from adherent dust, reduced to a very 

 fine powder, and passed through a No. 80 sieve. The leaves 

 were less finely powdered. 



DragendorfFs scheme for plant analysis 4 has been gener- 



1 Read before the American Philosophical Society, December 18, 1885. 

 An abstract of this paper was read before the Chemical Section of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, at Ann Arbor, Michigan, August 

 28, 1885. 



2 Lecons sur les Matter es Premieres Organiques, Paris, 1881, p. 446. 



3 M. E. J. Maumene, Bui. de la Societi Chimique de Paris, tome xlii, 



P- 35- 



4 Plant Analysis, Qualitative and Quantitative, by G. Dragendorff. Trans- 

 lated from the .German by Henry Greenish, London, 1884. 



