56 PAPAVERACE^. 



In the first place (independently of water) there is found mucilage 

 distinct from that of gum arable, also pectic matter/ and albumin. 

 These bodies, together with unavoidable fragments of the poppy- 

 capsules, probably amount on an average to more than half the weight 

 of the opium.^ 



In addition to these substances, the juice also contains sugar in solu- 

 tion, — in French opium to the extent of 6^ to 8 per cent. : according to 

 Decharme it is uncrystallizable. Sugar also exists in other opium, 

 but whether always naturally has not been determined. 



Fresh poppy-juice contains in the form of emulsion, wax, pectin, 

 albumin and insoluble calcareous salts. When good Turkey opium is 

 treated with water these substances remain in the residue to the extent 

 of 6 to 10 per cent. 



Hesse (1870) has isolated the luax by exhausting the refuse of 

 opium with boiling alcohol and a little lime. He thus obtained a 

 crystalline mass from which he separated by chloroform Palmitate and 

 Cerotate of Gerotyl, the former in the larger proportion. 



The presence of Caoutchouc has also been pointed out ; Proctei-^ 

 found opium produced in Vermont to contain about 11 per cent, of 

 that substance, together with a little fatty matter arid resin. 



Respecting the colouring matter and an extremely small quantity 

 of a volatile body with pepper-like odour, we know but little. After 

 the colouring matter has been precipitated from an aqueous solution of 

 opium by lead acetate, the liquid becomes again coloured by exposure 

 to the air. As to the volatile body, it may be removed by acetone or 

 benzol, but has not yet been isolated. 



The salts of inorganic bases, chiefly of calcium, magnesium and 

 potassium, contain partly the ordinary acids such as phosphoric and 

 sulphuric, and partly an acid peculiar to the poppy. 



Good opium of Asia Minor dried at 100° C. yields 4 to 8 per cent, 

 of ash. 



Poppy-juice contains neither starch nor tannic acid, the absence of 

 which easily-detected substances affords one criterion for judging of the 

 purity of the drug. 



The proportion of water in opium is very variable. In drying 

 Turkey opium previous to pulverization and for other pharmaceutical 

 purposes, the average loss is about 12| per cent.* Bengal opium, which 

 resembles a soft black extract, is manufactured so as to contain 30 per 

 cent, of water. 



As the active constituents of opium, or at all events the morphine, 

 can be completely extracted by cold water, the proportion of soluble 

 matter is of practical importance. In good opium of Asia Minor 

 previously dried, the extract (dried at 100° C.) always amounts to 

 between 55 and 66 per cent., — generally to more than 60, — thus 

 affording in many instances a test of the pureness of the drug. Dried 



1 We had the opportunity of examining 3 American Journ. of Pharm., 1870. 

 very good specimens of pectic matter and 124. 



caoutchouc from opium, with which we ^Fromthelaboratory accounts of Messrs. 



were presented (1879) by Messrs. J. F. Allen and Hanburys, London, by which it 



Macfarlane & Co., of London and Edin- appears that 200 lb. of Turkey opium dried 



burgh. at various times in the course of 10 years 



2 Fliickiger, in Pharm. Journ. x. (1869) lost in weight 2oi lb. 

 208. 



