CRUDE DRUGS. 589 



is reddish-brown and the odor is disagreeable, unfitting it for 

 use for flavoring. Vanillons are the fruits of wild plants and 

 are used in the manufacture of tobacco and sachet powders. 

 They are 10 to 12 cm. long, 1.5 to 2.5 cm. in diameter, gradually 

 tapering towards each end, somewhat triangular in outline, exter- 

 nally dark-brown to reddish-brown, frequently with transverse 

 markings, due to their being wrapped with twine during the 

 process of curing, when they are spoken of as " braided," and 

 generally longitudinally split ; the odor is peculiar, somewhat 

 resembling " heliotrope," and is due to the phenol aldehyde helio- 

 tropin (piperonal) which is closely related to vanillin. 



PoMPONA Vanilla is the fruit of wild and cultivated plants of 

 Vanilla ponipona, which is considered to be the original plant 

 from which V. planifolia has been derived by cultivation. The 

 fruits resemble the vanillons in appearance, but the odor is dis- 

 agreeable, like that of Tahiti \^anilla. 



Vanilla splits and cuts represent the more mature fruits in 

 which dehiscence has taken place and which are cut up into 

 short lengths. 



Tonka seeds contain the odorous principle coumarin, which 

 somewhat resembles vanillin. The ripe seeds of Coumarouna 

 odorata (Fam. Leguminosse), growing in the northern part of 

 the Amazon region, furnish Dutch tonka, and C. oppositifolia, 

 of Northern Brazil and Guiana, yields the English tonka. The 

 seeds are oblong-ovoid, somewhat flattened, 3 to 4 cm. long and 

 about I cm. wide, externally nearly black, frequently with numer- 

 ous white crystals, the coriaceous testa being deeply wrinkled ; 

 internally yellowish-brown, consisting of two plano-convex coty- 

 ledons, enclosing a plumule with two pinnately-compound leaves 

 and a fleshy radicle which is directed towards the micropyle sit- 

 uated at the rounded end of the seed ; the odor is fragrant, and 

 the taste aromatic and somewhat pungent. Tonka seeds contain 

 1.5 to 3 per cent, of coumarin or ortho-oxycinnamic anhydride, 

 which forms colorless prisms having a fragrant odor and a bitter, 

 aromatic taste. Coumarin is sparingly soluble in water, but quite 

 so in alcohol. Tonka also contains a large quantity of a fixed oil, 

 irregularly elongated aleurone grains 10 to 35 /a long, and spher- 

 ical starch grains from 4 to 9 ju, in diameter (Fig. 131). 



