1068 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
1) For a description of the different commercial varieties of 
the official drug, see page 1065 under “Drug used, its collection, 
preservation, etc.” 
2) As starch, in the shape of fine granules, constitutes about 
20 per cent, of the ginger rhizome, the latter can only be ob¬ 
tained in the form of a uniformly fine powder by reducing 
the other tissues to a corresponding degree of fineness. It is for 
this reason and for' the purpose of insuring the complete 
breaking up of all of the small resin cells that the Pharma¬ 
copoeia directs that the drug be reduced to a No. 60 powder. 
3-4) Ether is the solvent which appears to be best adapted to 
the preparation of this oleoresin in that it completely extracts 
the pungent principles from the drug and yields a product 
containing a minimum amount of undesirable extractive mat¬ 
ter. According to Garnett and Grier (1909) acetone, which 
was directed to be used by the Pharmacopoeia of 1900, does 
not completely exhaust ginger, even when a Soxlet’s appara¬ 
tus is used. It is, therefore, fortunate that the present Phar¬ 
macopoeia again specifies that ether be used for this purpose. 
In the earlier editions of the Pharmacopoeia (editions of 
1860 and 1870), alcohol was directed to be used as a “follow 
up” solvent to replace the ether with which percolation was 
begun. This procedure was abandoned in 1880 for reasons 
which will be discussed later. 
5) Since 1870, the Pharmacopoeia has directed that percola¬ 
tion be carried out in a special form of percolater adapted to 
the use of volatile liquids. For a description of such forms, 
see Part I under “Apparatus used.” 
6-7) The method of extracting the drug as outlined in the 
earlier editions of the Pharmacopoeia, the editions of 1860 and 
1870, was essentially the same as suggested by Beral in 1834. 
See Part I, page 929. From a practical standpoint, this method 
possessed distinct advantages, especially at the time when it 
was adopted, in that a considerable saving in the cost of the 
preparation of the oleoresin was effected through the use of 
alcohol as a “follow up” solvent for replacing the relatively 
expensive ether. The method, however, was not entirely sat¬ 
isfactory as the finished product contained a considerable 
amount of undesirable extractive matter owing to the greater 
solvent properties of the alcohol. Another disadvantage lay 
