240 
PH A R MA CO GNOS Y. 
SCAMMONIUM (Scammony). 
A gum resin obtained by incising the root of Convol- 
vulus Scammonia (Fam. Convolvulaceee), a perennial, 
twining herb indigenous to S}wia, Asia Minor and 
Greece. The incisions are made in the upper part of 
the root and the exuding gum-resin is collected in 
mussel shells, after which it is allowed to dry. The 
principal points of export are Smyrna and Aleppo. 
Description — In circular cakes or irregular angu- 
lar pieces of variable size; greenish gray or brownish 
black, often covered with a grayish-white powder; very 
brittle; fracture sharp; internally porous, lustrous and 
of a uniform brownish-black color, being more or less 
translucent in tbin fragments; odor peculiar, some- 
what cheese-like ; taste slightly acrid. 
Scammony does not effervesce on the addition of 
diluted hydrochloric acid (absence of calcium carbon- 
ate) ; an alcoholic solution is not colored blue on 
the addition of tincture of ferric chloride (absence of 
guaiac resin); ether dissolves not less than 70 per cent, 
(distinction from jalap resin), and when the residue 
left on evaporation of the ethereal solution is dissolved 
in hot solution of potassium hydrate it is not reprecipi- 
tated on the addition of diluted sulphuric acid. 
Constituents. — From 75 to 90 per cent, of resin, 
which is completely soluble in ether; gum 5 to 8 per 
cent.; ash not more than 3 per cent. 
Adulterants. — Scammony is adulterated with in- 
organic substances, various starchy products, foreign 
resins, such as guaiac, and an extract of the juice of 
the root. 
OPIU3I. 
The dried milk-juice of the capsules of Papaver som- 
niferum (Fam. Papaveracese), an annual herb probably 
