180 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [April, 1913. 
liquorice. In short it had the characteristics of sarcocolla 
which had been accidentally or fraudulently mixed with the 
imported tragacanth. Daniel Hanbury on the 27th October, 
1870, made a note to the effect that sarcocolla was offered for 
sale as mastic in the London market. 
Gum sarcocolla is imported into Bombay from the Persian 
Port of Bushire in bags which contain two hundredweights. 
Dr. Dymock observed that from twelve to twenty bags could 
be seen in a single warehouse. The total quantity imported 
must be considerable, and as the foreign export is trifling, the 
consumption of the gum in the country must be very large. 
. The chemistry of sarcocolla is of great interest. It was 
examined by Pelletier of Paris! seventy-seven years ago, who 
separated, by means of alcohol, a substance called sarcocollin. 
Sarcocollin is described as a brownish, semitransparent, amor- 
phous mass with a sweetish and afterwards bitter taste. It is 
soluble in cold water and alcohol, but not in ether. If softens 
when heated, and finally burns away with the odour of caramel, 
without leaving any residue. The body resembles glycyrrhizin, 
and it was composed of 57:13 per cent of carbon, 8°34 per cent 
of hydrogen and 34°31 per cent of oxygen. According to John- 
ston* sarcocollin is a mixture of various resins which may be 
separated as lead salts. 
A sample of Ganjideh from Bushire had the following com- 
position :— 
Moisture zy te eee ot 
Sol. in spirit 90% a .. 740 
ol.in water .. ot ie oe 
Insoluble fibre 8:4 
Ash oes 23 
100°0 
Nitrogen “4 
The alcoholic extract was pinkish in colour, brittle and 
transparent, soluble in water, but insoluble in ether and chloro- 
form. The aqueous solution was neutral in reaction, sweetish 
in taste and frothed when shaken. With sulphuric acid the 
dried extract gave an orange solution passin 
purple; with nitric acid it turned yellow. It contained no nitro- 
1 Ann. Ch. Pharm., VI, 1836, 32. 
2 Watt’s Dictionary of Chemistry, V; 196. 
