ADULTERATION OF INSECT POWDER. 6 
Cantraine and an unnamed writer who states that the flowers, dried, 
pulverized, and used as the Pyrethrum caucasicum, have the power 
of destroying insects. An anonymous writer in the Gardeners' 
Chronicle (1) states that the Spaniards burn the centers of these 
flowers in order to keep away gnats. 
Kalbruner (18), Beringer (#)', Caesar and Loretz (3), Huber 
(17), and Riley (27) found powdered daisy flowers to be inactive as 
an insecticide. Scott and Abbott, of the Bureau of Entomology, 
United States Department of Agriculture, found powdered daisy 
flowers to be inactive against roaches, bedbugs, house flies, cabbage 
aphis, chrysanthemum aphis, nasturtium aphis, orthezia. and red 
spider. 
The use of daisy flowers in insect powder is for no other purpose 
than to cheapen it. The extent to which this form of adulteration 
is being carried on made necessary a special study of this subject, 
with the view of establishing methods for its detection and quanti- 
tative estimation. Samples of the flowers of G. leacanthemnm were 
collected for this purpose from various sources, mainly from the 
collectors of " medicinal " herbs in the mountainous regions of 
Virginia and North Carolina. 
CHEMISTRY OF CHRYSANTHEMUM LEUCANTHEMUM. 
More or less complete analvses of G. leucanthemum have been made 
by Goessmann (13), Millspaugh (00), Stone (33), Penny (23), 
Beringer (2), Thorns (31/), and Dietze (8). The results obtained 
by them are given in Table 1. 
Table 1. — Analyses of Chrysanthemum leucanthemum L. 
Analyst. 
1 
Source 
of Part of Mois- 
sam- plant. I ture. 1 
pie. t 
! 
Nitro- 
gen, 
N.2 
1 
Fat 
Ash> (ether 
tract). 
Crude 
fiber 
Phos- 
phor- 
us 
pen- 
t ox- 
id, 
P 2 5 . 
Po- 
tassi- 
um 
oxid, 
K 2 0. 
Man- 
ga- 
nese, 
Mn. 
Wa- JAlco- 
ter : hoi 
ex- ex- 
tract.; tract. 
Pe- 
trole- 
um- 
ether 
ex- 
tract. 
Goessmann. 
Millspaugh . 
i P. ct. P. ct. 
Mass. Whole plant.: 9.65 1.36 
W.Va do 2.12 
P. Ct. ! P. Ct. i P. ct. 
7.80 ' 2.57 39.94 
P. ct. P. ct. 
"6." 45' I "2."S8~ 
P. ct. \ P. ct. P. ct. 
P.ct. 
Stone N.TT ....do .177.50 1 1.36 
8.40 2.53 28.89 
7. OS i 4.99 28.16 
Penny 
Del. do 70.89 1 1.29 
Beringer 
(?).-.. Flowers only 
(?)... do 
9. 30 2. 68 
13. 43 9. 45 
3.37 
Thorns 
10.11 . 
8.93 
8.90 
Pres. 
Dietze 
(?) do 
7.59 
3 3.76 
<3.17 
s 2.46 
1 
6 2.25 
1 Tn those cases in which moisture is reported, the results for the other constituents are calculated on 
moisture-free basis . 
2 Protein divided by 6.25. 
3 Ether of specific gravity 0.735 used. 
4 "Purest" petroleum ether used, 
s Petroleum ether used. 
f Ether of specific gravity 0.720 used. 
In Table 2 are presented the results of anatyses of the samples 
collected by the authors and obtained from drug collectors in Virginia 
and North Carolina during the summer of 1917. The analyses were 
made according to the methods of the Association of Official Agri- 
cultural Chemists. 
