A CHEMICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE SEEDS OF PANGIUM 

 EDULE AND OF HYDNOCARPUS ALCALDE l 



By Harvey C. Brill 



(From the Laboratory of Organic Chemistry, Bureau of Science, 



Manila) 



In an article 2 describing the investigation of the seeds of 

 Hydnocarpus venenata and the properties of the oil from these 

 seeds, announcement was made of the continuation of this in- 

 vestigation on the oils from seeds of various related plants 

 growing in the Philippine Islands. The examination of such 

 seeds was undertaken because of the fact that they are closely- 

 allied to the genus Hydnocarpus, which is closely related to the 

 genus Taraktogenos, in order to determine if they have properties 

 similar to the seeds of the latter. Chaulmoogra oil is obtained 

 from Taraktogenos, but without doubt much of the oil sold as 

 chaulmoogra is obtained from Hydnocarpus, since the chemical 

 properties of certain of these oils are practically identical with 

 the properties of chaulmoogra oil, which would make substitution 

 easy and practically impossible to detect. Data concerning the 

 seeds of Pangium edule Reinw. and Hydnocarpus alcalde C. DC. 

 are herewith presented. 



PANGIUM EDULE REINWARDT 



Pangium edule is indigenous to the Malayan Archipelago and 

 is found in various parts of the Philippine Islands. The seeds 

 are flattened; their average size is about 5 centimeters long by 

 3 centimeters wide. They are embedded in a crustaceous peri- 

 carp, which is about 22 centimeters long by 15 centimeters in 

 diameter. Mature and immature seeds were examined. 



The Pangium edule seeds used by me were furnished by the 

 Philippine Bureau of Forestry. 



De Jong 3 announces the isolation of a cyanogenetic glucoside 

 from the leaves of Pangium edule that is identical in all re- 

 spects with that found in Gynocardia odorata by Power et. al. 4 



1 Received for publication November, 1916. 



'Brill, Harvey C, This Journal, Sec. A (1916), 11, 75. 



3 De Jong, Awk., Recueil des travaux chimiques des Pays-Bas et de la 

 Belgique (1909), 28, 24; ibid. (1911), 30, 220. 



4 Power, F. B., and Lees, F. H., Journ. Chem. Soc. London (1905), 87, 

 349; Power, F. B., and Barrowcliff, M., ibid. (1905), 87, 896. 



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