44 SCIENTIFIC AND APPLIED PHARMACOGNOSY 



by melting it in hot water and straining the mixture. The chief 

 supplies of the drug come from Finland, the Black Forest (Germany) 

 and the Jura Mountains. It is doubtful if the commercial supplies 

 have ever been derived from the French province, Burgundy, from 

 which it takes its name. 



Description. Irregular, hard, opaque or translucent pieces, 

 more or less plastic and strongly adhesive, yellowish-brown or 

 reddish-brown, brittle, the fracture shiny, conchoidal; odor agree- 

 able, terebinthinate; taste aromatic and sweetish. 



Burgundy Pitch is partly soluble in cold alcohol (1 to 20), and 

 almost entirely soluble in boiling alcohol or in glacial acetic acid. 



Constituents. Chiefly resin, consisting of two crystallizable 

 resin acids: dextropimaric and laBvopimaric acids; a volatile oil 

 (isomeric with oil of turpentine), about 5 per cent, to which its 

 peculiar fragrance is due; and about 10 per cent or less of water, 

 which is included during the preparation. 



Substitute. An article is sometimes sold under the name of 

 Burgundy Pitch which is prepared by melting colophony with fat 

 or pitch and mixing with water. 



Adulterants. Burgundy pitch is sometimes adulterated with 

 various mixtures, as of other coniferous products and palm oil; these 

 are distinguished by being more or less opaque and somewhat porous 

 and not having the characteristic odor of the genuine article, and 

 also by the formation of a turbid mixture on the addition of two parts 

 by weight of glacial acetic acid. 



Pix CANADENSIS. Canada (or Hemlock) Pitch is the oleo-resin 

 of the common Hemlock [Tsuga (Abies) canadensis] which is obtained 

 by making incisions in the trunk and collecting the exudate, or by 

 boiling pieces of the wood and bark and skimming off the melted 

 oleo-resin. It occurs in dark, reddish-brown, opaque or translucent 

 pieces resembling Burgundy Pitch, and probably contains similar 

 constituents. 



Hemlock Bark is very extensively used in the United States for 

 tanning. The inner bark is used to some extent in medicine. The 

 drug comes in flattened pieces, varying in size; the outer surface is 

 cinnamon-brown or blackish-brown and longitudinally wrinkled, or 

 evenly furrowed; inner surface yellowish-brown to cinnamon-brown, 

 finely striate and with numerous small crystals; fracture short in 

 the outer portion and strongly fibrous in the inner bark; the odor is 

 faint and the taste strongly astringent. The inner structure is shown 

 in Fig. 17. It contains from 10 to 15 per cent of tannin and a small 

 quantity of volatile oil and resin. 



