SPICES AND CONDIMENTS. 177 



Thus the fixed oil was reduced in one of the samples from 36 per cent., the normal 

 amount, to about one-half or 18 per cent., the volatile oil to 0.1 per cent., and the 

 nitrogen to 3.32 per cent., while in another sample the sulphur was as low as 0.81 per 

 cent. The amount of wheat flour and turmeric varied from 22.91 per cent, to 38.82 

 per cent., that is to say, from one-fourth to one-third of the article. 



These results furnish an excellent basis for the examination of the 

 mustards met with in our country. In addition, however, we have the 

 work of several other investigators. 0. H. Piesse and Lionel Stausell* 

 have given their results of the analyses of several samples of pure 

 farinas and their ashes, largely after the method of Hassall. Blyth 

 copies them, t and adds several pages on the chemistry of mustard and 

 its adulterations, adding nothing new to what has been quoted from 

 Hassall, with the exception of a formula for calculating the percentage 

 of added flour in mixtures from, the amount of fixed oil found. He 

 says : 



Estimation of fat or oil. This is particularly useful when wheat starch is the 

 adulterating agent. Wheat Hour does not contain more than 1.2 to 2.1 per cent, of 

 oil; mustard, on the other hand, from 33.9 to 36.7 per cent. A weighed portion of the 

 previously dried samples may be placed in an extraction apparatus, and from the oil 

 found the following formuhe will serve as a guide to the amount of flour prese lit : 

 x = amount of mustard, y amount of oil found. 



33.9 x 1.2 (IQO-a) _ 36.7 x 2 (100-aQ 



100 " 100 100 " 100 



according as the greater or less amount of oil is taken as being present in the pure 

 farina and the flour. 



Accepting the mean for mustard and 2.0 per cent, as the proper figure 

 for flour, the formula would read more conveniently, it would seem, 



1.333 



where #=100 when the mustard is pure. Of the amount of ash Blyth 

 says : 



" The total ash of dried mustard averages 5 per cent. The highest number the 

 writer has obtained is 5.3 per cent.; the lowest 5.088 per cent. Of this ash 1.2 at 

 least is soluble in water ; in other words, the ash of mustard consists of 30 parts per 

 cent, soluble, 70 parts per cent, insoluble in water. It hence follows that if found 

 above 5.5 per cent, mineral matters of foreign origin are present; if below 4 per cent, 

 it is an indication of some organic adulterant." 



Albert B. Leeds and Edgar Everhartf have taken up Hassall's and 

 Bly th ? s work and shown that thelatter's formula for calculating added 

 flour from the percentage of oil found will not serve in all cases, as it is 

 not uncommon to express some of the oil from the seed before grinding, 

 to adulterate with oil cake or seeds, or to add cheap oils to the flour 

 used as a diluent to cover any deficiency. They also analyzed a sample 

 of pure farina of brown mustard according to a method devised by 

 themselves as a modification of Hassall, in which the determinations 

 should be direct instead of calculated. Briefly, it is as follows : 



* Analyst, 5, 161-165, 1880. 



t Foods and their adulterations, 485-486. 



t Zeit. anal. Chern. 21,389-394,1882. 



22823 BULL. 13, pt. 2 4 



