141 
Nevertheless when I first received it I was informed that in a local family it 
had the reputation of being injurious, and even poisonous. The gum is credited 
with having caused vomiting and serious symptoms which lasted three or four days 
in a young man who had eaten the gum as freely as one would wattle gum. 
Nothing in my analysis shows any poisonous substance in the gum, and as 
this is the only instance which has come under my notice of alleged poisoning by 
Panax gum, the sufferer may have been under a misapprehension. At the same 
time it must be borne in mind that vegetable substances of an injurious nature 
(e.g., the poisonous principle in Macrozamia seeds) are sometimes not capable of 
detection by ordinary chemical processes. 
My sample has the appearance of an inferior gum arabic ; it breaks with a 
dull conchoidal fracture ; the colour varies from amber to colourless. 
After twenty-four hours in cold water a portion of the gum remained 
undissolved, and had swollen a good deal. After separating the solution, this 
insoluble substance was treated with very dilute potash ; it readily dissolved, and on 
acidifying with acetic acid and adding alcohol, arabin was precipitated, showing the 
insoluble portion to have been metarabin. The gum soluble in cold water has 
proved to be arabin. The composition of this sample of gum is :— 
Arabin 
Metarabin 
Ash 
Water 
68-8 
2'0 (by difference). 
2-0 ' 
13T 
1000 
I have received (also from Mr. William Bauerlen, collector of the 
Technological Museum) a sample of gum from Panax Murrayi , obtained from 
Lindendale, Lismore, where it is known locally as “ Pencil Cedar,” and where it 
attains a height of 40-60 feet, and a stem diameter of 9 to 24 inches. It was 
collected in January, 1892, and was analysed a month later. 
This gum is brittle, like that of P. sambucifolius, var. angusta, and not 
viscous like that of P. elegans. Its taste is not pleasant; it has not much odour, 
not resembling P. elegans in this respect. It is fairly light in colour, although 
portions are as dark as ordinary glue. In cold water it wholly dissolves to a clear 
transparent liquid, not opalescent like that of P. sambucifolius var. The aqueous 
solution has an odour different from that of the others, and not so pleasant. It is 
difficult to describe. 
On the addition of alcohol of specific gravity, ‘834, the gum is precipitated as 
an opaque white substance, and is arabin. The composition of the gum is:— 
Arabin ... ... ... ... ... 85'1 
Ash ... ... . ... 23 
Water ... ... ... ... ... 126 
1000 
