798 



FOODS AND FOOD ADULTERANTS. 



Analyses of samples of honey obtained from localities near Washington, accompanied by 



affidavits. 



In connection with the analyses of the samples of honey certified by 

 the producers to be pure and which, nevertheless, showed right-handed 

 polarization, I beg to call attention to the character of a honey dew 

 exuded by the pine tree, which, when used as food by bees, may give 

 rise to the phenomenon mentioned. 



PINE-TREK HONEY DEW AND PINE-TREE HONEY.* 



In March, 1890, I received from Mr. W. M. Evans, of Amherst, Va., a sample of 

 pine-tree honey dew and of pine-tree honey. 



The honey dew, according to the description sent by Mr. Evans, was collected drop 

 by drop from the pine leaves. At the same time Mr. Evans sent me a sample of pine- 

 tree honey, which he says was without doubt made by the bees from the pine leaves 

 during the winter, since no other honey-producing plants were accessible to them. 

 Having seen it stated in some of the foreign journals that honey made from pine 

 forests gave a right-handed polarization, 1 thought it would be of interest to exam- 

 ine the two samples sent by Mr. Evans to determine, if possible, their nature. The 

 small quantity of the honey dew which I had at my disposal made, of course, a 

 thorough study impossible. So far as could be determined, however, it had the fol- 

 lowing characteristics: 



It contained 54.41 per cent of water and 45.59 per cent of solid matters. Calculated 

 as dextrose it contained 17.44 per cent of reducing sugar. After inversion it con- 

 tained 26.03 per cent of reducing sugar, which would indicate a content of sucrose 

 equivalent to 8.16 per cent. At 31 by direct polarization it gave an angular devia- 

 tion equivalent to 36 56 of the cane sugar scale (Ventzke). If we assume that the 

 reducing sugar present was pure invert sugar, then the levogyrate influence of 17.44 

 per cent of invert sugar at 31 would be equal to 4 97 of the cane sugar scale. Add- 

 ing this number to the direct polarization, it is seen that this would have amounted 

 to 41.53 divisions of the scale. Deducting from this number the right-handed polar- 

 ization due to the sucrose present, viz, 8.16, we have 33.37 divisions of right-handed 

 rotation, due to bodies other than sucrose present in the dew. The sum of the rota- 

 tions of the invert sugar, viz, 17.44 per cent, and the sucrose, 8.1G per cent, is 25.60 

 per cent of the total solid matter due to sucrose and invert sugar. Deducting this 

 number from the total solids present, viz, 45.59, there is left 19.99 per cent solid 

 matter, which has caused the right-handed deviation of 33.37 divisions. This sub- 

 stance, therefore, has a specific rotatory power fully one-half greater than sucrose. It 

 is not, therefore, due to pinite, but to some body or mixture of bodies having a spe- 

 cific rotatory power of (a)d = 105 (circa).* Having thus found that the pine tree exuda- 



* Contributions from the Chemical Division, U. S. Department of Agriculture, pub- 

 lished in American Chemical Journal, Vol. 13, pp. 24, ei seq. 



tThis rotation would indicate that the body might bo arahinnsc [ (o)j=105], but 

 there was uot a sufficient amount of it definitely to determine this point. 



