THE FLAVONES OF RHUS* 
Chas. E. Sando and H, H. Bartlett. 
Some time ago our interest in the possible formation of antho- 
cyanins from flavones in plants led us to investigate Rhus glabra L., 
R. typhina L., and R. copallina L., all of them species with yellow 
wood, red fruits and exhibiting exceedingly brilliant red autumnal 
coloring. From various species of Rhus investigated by Perkin,^'^ 
flavones have been isolated and identified. No great difficulty was 
therefore anticipated in the study of the flavones, and these have 
been isolated and identified from Rhus glabra (leaves, both green 
and red, wood, and berries), Rhus typhina (wood), and Rhus copallina 
(green leaves). We have not been successful thus far in isolating 
the red pigments of the berries and autumn leaves, but the distribution 
of the flavones themselves seems sufficiently interesting to justify the 
publication of a note on the subject. 
The genus Rhus, in the broad sense, includes several subdivisions 
which really seem to merit recognition as genera. The type species 
of Rhus in the restricted sense is, as Greene^ has shown, Rhus Coriaria 
L., the Sicilian sumach. With this species, to which on account of 
its commercial importance most of the chemical investigators have 
directed their attention, the three species studied by us are congeneric. 
One of them, Rhus glabra, is a collective species, including a number of 
elementary species, but their limits are not well known, and for the 
purpose of this paper it will suffice to use the name R. glabra, with 
the qualification that the data apply only to a form occurring about 
Ann Arbor, Michigan. 
* The work here reported was carried on in the laboratories of the office of 
fermentation and physiological investigations, Bureau of Plant Industry, and the 
Department of Botany of the University of Michigan. Published by permission of 
the Secretary of Agriculture. 
1 Perkin, A. G., and Allen, G. Y. Colouring matter of Sicilian sumach, Rhus 
Coriaria. Journ. Chem. Soc. (London), Trans. 69: 1299-1303. 1896. 
2 Perkin, A. G. Yellow colouring principles contained in various tannin matters. 
Part VI. Rhus Cotinus and Rhus Rhodanthema. Journ, Chem. Soc. (London), 
Trans. 73: 1016-1019. 1898. 
2 Greene, E. L. A study of Rhus glabra. Proc. Washington Acad. Sci. 8: 167- 
196. 1906. 
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