340 SCIENTIFIC AND APPLIED PHARMACOGNOSY 



Brazil. Goa powder arises in the living cells of the wood of the stems. 

 The cell walls becomes metamorphosed, finally disintegrated, forming 

 large lacunae, in which are deposited the altered products in the form 

 of a yellowish-brown powder, which is more or less admixed with the 

 tissues of the bark and wood. The trees are hewn and cut into con- 

 venient pieces, the Goa powder being scraped out. The crude 

 article is shipped from Brazil to Europe, where it is purified. 



Goa powder when fresh is of a light-yellow color, but on exposure 

 to air it becomes dark brown or brownish-purple. It is composed of 

 small, wine-colored, somewhat translucent, irregular, angular frag- 

 ments, with a few fragments of tracheae and libriform cells having 

 bordered pores. It is nearly insoluble in water, soluble in alcohol, 

 chloroform and solutions of the alkalies, the latter being colored deep 

 red and showing a green fluorescence. It should contain between 

 50 and 75 per cent of a neutral principle, chrysarobin, which is official 

 in several of the Pharmacopoeias. It also contains about 2 per cent 

 of resin; 7 per cent of bitter extractive; a small amount of chryso- 

 phanic acid, and yields about 3 per cent of ash. Under the micro- 

 scope the powder sometimes shows colorless prismatic crystals. 



Hesse considers that the therapeutic activity of the drug is due to 

 two anthranols. (Pharm. Jour., 1917, p. 353.) 



Chrysarobin or purified Goa powder is a golden yellow crystalline 

 powder, becoming dark brown on exposure to the air and is inodorous 

 and tasteless. It consists of needle-shaped crystals or large prisms, 

 frequently united in spheroidal or irregular aggregates. Upon mix- 

 ing 0.001 gm. of chrysarobin with 2000 c.c. of hot water, a light yel- 

 lowish or brownish solution is obtained, which does not change litmus 

 paper, nor give a precipitate with solutions of ferric salts. Upon 

 treating chrysarobin with ammonia or lime water and exposing it to 

 air for a day or so it assumes a carmine-like color changing to violet, 

 due to its oxidation to chrysophanic acid. With either sulphuric 

 acid, or strong solution of the alkalies, chrysarobin is colored red. 

 It is almost insoluble in dilute solutions of the alkalies. 



Copaiba. BALSAMUM COPAIV.E; BALSAM COPAIVA OR BALSAM 

 OF COPAIBA. An oleo-resin obtained from several species of Copaiba 

 (Fam. Leguminosae, sub-fam. Caesalpinaceae), trees growing in trop- 

 ical South America. The oleo-resin is formed in schizo-lysigenous 

 cavities, being a metamorphosed product of the cell walls of the 

 wood parenchyma. The cavities increase in size, unite with each 

 other to form large reservoirs, holding sometimes from 40 to 50 L. of 

 oleo-resin. It exudes spontaneously, but is usually obtained by 

 making incisions into the heartwood, about 60 cm. from the ground. 



