CRUDE DRUGS. 547 



water and alcohol. The solutions are colored with the alkalies, 

 purplish-red, then purple and finally deep red. The compound 

 formed with ammonia yields haematein, a dark violet, crystalline 

 principle having a green, metallic lustre and which is supposed 

 to form in the fermented wood used by dyers. Logwood also 

 contains volatile oil, resin, tannin and calcium oxalate. 



Allied Plants. — The woods of certain species of Cccsalpinia 

 also contain red coloring principles and furnish the red woods of 

 tropical America. Brazil wood is obtained from C. echinata and 

 contains the principle known as brasilin, which is colorless when 

 first extracted but assumes a red color on exposure ; Sappam or 

 false sandal wood is obtained from C. Sappam of Farther India. 

 Red coloring principles are also found in other species of Ccesal- 

 pinia and in a number of other genera of the Leguminosse as Viell. 



SANTALUM RUBRUM.— RED SAUNDERS.— The heart- 

 wood of Pterocarpus santalimis (Fam. Leguminosae) , a tree (p. 

 295) indigenous to the southern part of Farther India, and culti- 

 vated in the Southern Philippines, Ceylon and Southern India, the 

 chief supplies coming from Madras. 



Description. — Usually in small chips or coarse powder, red 

 or brownish-red, in transverse section slightly radiate, with numer- 

 ous alternate lighter and darker concentric rings, medullary rays 

 one cell wide ; fracture hard, fibrous ; inodorous ; taste slight. 



Constituents. — A coloring principle santalin (santalic acid), 

 which occurs in red needles that are insoluble in water, soluble 

 in alcohol, forming a deep red solution which is colored violet 

 with solutions of the alkalies. It also contains tannin and several 

 colorless crystalline principles. 



Allied Plants. — The African sandal wood or barwood is 

 obtained from P. santalinoides of tropical West Africa. Cam- 

 wood or African red-wood (obtained from Baphia nitida, in 

 Sierra Leone) is also valued on account of its red coloring 

 principle. 



SASSAFRAS MEDULLA.— SASSAFRAS PITH.— The 

 pith of young stems and branches of Sassafras officinale (Fam. 

 Lauracese), a tree (Fig. 73) indigenous to Eastern North America 

 (p. 277). The pith is collected late in autumn, after frost, and 

 dried. 



