A CHEMICAL STUDY OF YUCCA ANGUSTIFOLIA 1 
This plant is well known in the West as the “soapweed.” 
It grows very abundantly in most of the Western States and 
territories. It has attracted the attention of botanists, and 
is a plant of interest on account of the many uses to which it 
has been put in the countries where it is found. 
The results noted in this paper are based upon a first and 
introductory chemical analysis of the Yucca. Previously, little 
has been studied of its chemistry. It is briefly mentioned in 
the work of a French writer, Dr. Georges Pennetier; 2 also, 
in a paper on the study of manganese found in the ash of plants, 
in which M. Maumene states that the ash of the Yucca con¬ 
tains manganese. 3 He does not name what species of Yucca 
was examined. The former writer gives the micro-chemical 
characters of the action of iodine and sulphuric acid, dilute 
chromic acid, and cuprammonia on the fibres of the Yucca 
angustijolia. 
The specimens of Yucca used in these analyses were of large 
growth and in good condition. The entire plant was examined, 
and a separate study made of the bark and wood of the root, 
and of the green leaf and the yellow basal part. The roots 
were air-dried, freed from adherent dust, reduced to a very 
fine powder, and passed through a No. 80 sieve. The leaves 
were less finely powdered. 
Dragendorff’s scheme for plant analysis 4 has been gener- 
1 Read before the American Philosophical Society, December 18, 1885. 
An abstract of this paper was read before the Chemical Section of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, at Ann Arbor, Michigan, August 
28, 1885. 
2 Lecons sur les Matieres Premieres Organiques, Paris, 1881, p. 446. 
3 M. E. J. Maumene, Bui. de la Society Chimique de Paris , tome xlii, 
P- 3 ° 5 - 
4 Plant Analysis , Qualitative and Quantitative , by G. Dragendorff. Trans¬ 
lated from the German by Henry Greenish, London, 1884. 
