ON GOA POWDER. 
345 
tions of, true Calisaya, some of which contained comparatively a small propor¬ 
tion of alkaloids. He did not believe that even Calisaya bark yielded the 
amount of quinine in a crystallizable state which was sometimes ascribed to it. 
ON GOA POWDER. 
BY Mil. DAVID S. KEMP. 
As found at Bombay, Goa powder is a light powder of a chocolate-brown 
colour. A specimen of it is sent herewith to the museum of the Pharmaceutical 
Society. 
It is used very successfully in obstinate skin-diseases, particularly for a kind of 
ringworm to which Europeans and natives are very subject in this country and 
China ; it is rubbed on the skin with water or lemon-juice. Regarding its his¬ 
tory, the only authentic information I can obtain is, that a case of the substance 
was imported into Goa, on this coast, some twelve years ago by a Portuguese 
merchant; it was in the form of masses, mixed with fragments of root, stems, 
bark, or some such matters. The masses were reduced to powder at Goa and sold 
there. The importer ultimately left Goa for Mozambique, where he died. This 
information I had from a Parsee who was in the service of the importer at Goa; 
I have heard also from another source that the drug is manufactured at Mozam¬ 
bique. Goa powder when heated, fuses into a black resinous mass and burns 
like aloes. The charred residue first produced may be ultimately burnt to a 
minute white ash. It is insoluble in water ; partially soluble in benzole, alcohol, 
and resinous solvents; almost wholly soluble in caustic potash solution, and totally 
.soluble in oil of vitriol, from which it precipitates on the addition of water. 
Heated in a tube, a yellow powder and a tarry oil sublime, leaving a charred re¬ 
sidue. The following is a quantitative analysis of an authentic specimen of the 
drug. 
A portion of the powder weighing ten grammes was exhausted with benzole, 
and the solution (of a deep yellow colour) allowed to evaporate spontaneously. 
As the liquid volatilized, a substance was left which was purple externally, and 
of a bright golden colour on the side attached to the glass ; after some time a 
few hard, purple crystalline tufts were also deposited on the bottom of the vessel. 
The residue of evaporation weighing 5-05 grammes, treated with solution of 
caustic potash, was in most part dissolved, producing a deep blood-coloured liquid, 
and 0 - 761 gramme of alight green residue (B). 
r Phe portion of Goa powder insoluble in benzole, was treated with solution of 
caustic potash, and was entirely taken up by that liquid with production of a 
dense claret-coloured solution (C). 
Both of these substances, soluble in potash, were precipitated by the addition 
of acids, and obtained as powders (A and C) of extreme fineness. Another por¬ 
tion of Goa powder burnt in a platinum crucible yielded 0-3 per cent, of a 
white ash. 
The composition thus obtained was:— 
A. Substance soluble both in benzole and alkalies.42-89 
B. Substauce soluble in benzole and insoluble in alkalies .... 07-61 
C. Substance insoluble in benzole and soluble in alkalies .... 49*2 
Ash.0-3 
100-00 
A. The substance soluble both in benzole and alkalies was obtained by preci¬ 
pitation from its alkaline solution by acids, as a brownish-yellow powder, 
