166 
ANALYSIS OF ORDINARY COMMERCIAL SPECIMENS OF 
JALAP, SHOWING- THEIR RELATIVE VALUE IN PROPOR¬ 
TION OF RESIN OF JALAP COMPARED WITH MARKET 
PRICE. 
BY MR. ALFRED SOUTHALL, BIRMINGHAM. 
No. 1 
• 
Description. 
Jalap Tops . . 
• 
Resin. 
5 per cent. 
• 
Market Price. 
4ff. per lb. 
„ 2 
• 
ii 
11 
• 
12 
ii 
• 
5 ff. 
ii 
„ 3 
• 
ii 
Tampico . 
• 
9* 
ii 
• 
10 ff. 
ii 
„ 4 
• 
ii 
>) • 
• 
10* 
u 
. Is. 
Off. 
ii 
„ 5 
• 
u 
ii • 
• 
30i 
ii 
. Is. 
Off. 
51 
„ 6 
• 
ii 
ii • 
• 
29 
ii 
. Is. 
6ff. 
11 
i, 7 
• 
ii 
n 
■ 
12* 
ii 
. Is. 
6ff. 
11 
V 8 
• 
i» 
ii 
• 
33f 
ii 
. 2s. 
Off. 
11 
„ 9 
• 
ii 
ii 
• 
27 
ii 
. 2s. 
Off. 
fl 
„ 10 
• 
ii 
Vera Cruz 
• 
15* 
n 
. 4s. 
Off. 
11 
• 
ii 
>i 
* 
17* 
ii 
. 4s. 
Off. 
1} 
„12 
• 
ii 
• 
17* 
ii 
. 4s. 
Off. 
11 
„ 13 
• 
ii 
ii 
• 
12* 
ii 
. 4s. 
Off. 
11 
„14 
• 
j» 
ii 
• 
23 
ii 
. 4s. 
4ff. 
11 
„ 15 
• 
51 
n 
• 
20i 
j» 
. 4s. 
6ff. 
H 
„ 16 
• 
11 
ii 
. 
16f 
ii 
. 4s. 
lOff. 
11 
The importance of maintaining a uniform medicinal value in the drugs 
ordered by the Pharmacopoeia cannot be over-estimated. The British Pharma¬ 
copoeia has, in the instances of opium, cinchona bark, and scammony, given a 
standard value for each of these remedies, but I think it might with great ad¬ 
vantage have included some other drugs, and, amongst the rest, the subject of 
this analysis. That market prices are frequently no guide to the pharmaceu¬ 
tist, the analyses which were offered at the last meeting of this Conference of 
various samples of opium and scammony sufficiently testified, and the addi¬ 
tional proof offered by the specimens of jalap herewith, amply confirms the 
statement. 
In order to ascertain the medicinal value of the supplies of jalap, as found in 
the shops of pharmaceutists, I procured five specimens of powdered jalap at 
different establishments, and found the result, in percentage of resin, as 
follows :— 
No. 1, 13 per cent, of resin. 
„ 2, 15 
„ 3, 9* 
„ 4, 16* 
,, 5, 17 
n 
ii 
ii 
ii 
>i 
ii 
51 
The commercial value of jalap imported from Tampico is much inferior to the 
kind imported by way of Vera Cruz, but an average of seven samples of each 
kind here analysed, show that the Tampico is richer in resin than the Vera 
Cruz ; the average in the one case being about 22 per cent., and in the other 
174 per cent. 
I have made an experiment with the purgative effects of the two varieties, 
and find them much the same. The resin from Tampico jalap is somewhat 
darker than that from the Vera Cruz variety, and has a distinctive peculiarity 
of smell, but I have not discovered any difference in chemical character. 
Mr. Hanbury referred to a case in which the roots of Aconitvm ferox were mistaken 
