219 
REPORT ON THE COMMERCIAL POWDERS OE GINGER 
AND CINCHONA. 
BY WENTWORTH LASCELLES SCOTT, F.C.S., ETC. 
I have examined about thirty specimens of “ powdered ginger,” and nearly 
as many samples of “bark,” since the last meeting of the Conference, and 
will submit the results obtained to your notice without further preface, not, 
perhaps, exactly in the form of a precis for the “proceedings,” but still, I 
trust, in a sufficiently concise manner, so as to absorb as little of your time 
as possible upon what must be a comparatively uninteresting subject. 
The methods of testing I have purposely confined to what might be termed 
the “ rough-and-ready ” class, as being more likely to be adopted by the ever- 
busy members of our Society, the greater number of whom have neither the 
time nor the appliances required for a series of “ complete quantitative 
(inftlysGS • 5 5 
Taking “ginger” first, it may be remarked that more than three-fourths 
of the entire number of samples were described as “Jamaica ginger ” by the 
vendors or upon the labels ; indeed, any unsophisticated purchaser would be 
gradually impressed with a conviction that the Zingiber officinale will only 
flourish upon the island just named. As it would be impossible to describe the 
appearances of the various specimens under the microscope without exhibit¬ 
ing drawings, I shall merely observe that this instrument is extremely valu¬ 
able in these and all similar inquiries, and that even the cheaper microscopes 
with low powers and lower definition will often show, in a most unmistak¬ 
able manner, the difference between genuine and adulterated samples of 
“ ginger ” and “ cinchona.” 
In the accompanying table the third column, perhaps, needs a few words 
in explanation. The figures there presented show the value of the seteial 
gingers by what might be called a “ sap>ometric method the standards of 
comparison being a series of twenty solutions prepared as follows : 
A quantity of best white ginger was obtained, four varieties in all (com¬ 
mercial), excluding the low Bengal and some other kinds, and a mixtuie 
made of equal parts, which was afterwards reduced to a fine powder. This 
was next exhausted by cold percolation, first with proof spirit, and finally 
with distilled water. The twenty solutions were prepared from this fluid 
extract in such a manner, that, while they all contained two fluid ounces of 
proof spirit in each pint, No. 1 held in solution the extract derived from 2o 
orams of the standard ginger; No. 2 the extract from 50 grains, and so on 
up to No. 20, which was equivalent to 500 grains of the pure ginger. 
In comparing a sample ot powdered ginger with these solutions, 500 giams 
of the former was taken and extracted in a similar nmnner, two ounces of 
proof spirit being employed, mixed with the aqueous extract, and the whole 
made up by the addition of more water to twenty ounces. I he taste of this 
fluid was then carefully compared with that of the numbered test-solutions, 
until the one which agreed with it most perfectly could be definitively detei- 
mined ; the “ sapometrical value ” was found by multiplying the number of 
the solution by five. Thus, supposing that the extract of the sample under 
examination gives a solution of the same flavour and pungency as our test- 
solution No. 17, the flavour-value would be (17 X 5=) 85. Crude and imper¬ 
fect as this plan may appear, it nevertheless furnishes a very fair approxima¬ 
tion to the true value of any sample ot ginger at a small expenditure of time 
and labour; and, as the majority of retail druggists buy their ginger ready 
ground, it presents to them a simple mode of guarding against the presence 
of adulterated or inferior ginger in their warehouses. 
Q 2 
