Notes on the Sweet Principle of Smilax Glycyphylla. 
By Epwarp H. Rennie, M.A., D.Se., Professor of Chemistry 
in the University of Adelaide. 
[Read before the Royal Society of N.S.W., 2 November, 1886.] 
Tue Australian sarsaparilla (Smilax Glycyphylla), a climbing plant 
which grows abundantly on the shores o ackson, is familiar 
to many inhabitants of the Colony,on account of the peculiar taste 
of its leaves, somewhat resembling that of liquorice. An infusion 
of the leaves, supposed to have some efficacy as a blood-purifier, 
is frequently sold under the name of sarsaparilla. Some time ago, 
a partial description of a crystalline substance extracted from the 
leaves was published by Dr. C. R. Alder Wright, and the author, 
in the Journal of the Chemical Society of London. During the 
past eight or nine months the examination of this substance has 
been resumed by the writer. 
Some 75 to 80 lbs. of the leaves and stems were macerated with 
alcohol, the alcohol distilled off, and the syrupy residue repeatedly 
extracted with ether. On distilling off the ether a crystalline 
substance remained, which was purified by several crystallizations 
from hot water, and finally by treatment with acetate of lead, 
filtering off the precipitate which formed, and passing sulphuretted 
hydrogen through the warm filtrate. On filtering off the sulphide 
of leadfrom the still warm liquid, a colour] luti btained 
which on cooling deposited a mass of slender, perfectly white 
needles. The substance so prepared is very sparingly soluble in 
dilute sulphuric acid, a copious white crystalline precipitate is 
formed ; and when this is filtered off, the filtrate reduces Fehling’s 
solution readily. 
When crystallized from aqueous ether, it contains 3 molecules 
of water of crystallization; when crystallized from water, 44 mole- 
cules. Analysis of the anhydrous substance leads to the formula 
C,H,,0, The substance above allu to as precipitated on 
boiling with dilute sulphuric acid has the composition C,;H,,0;, 
and in fact appears to be identical with phloretin, a substance 
