ON THE OCCURRENCE OF SOLID HYDROCAR¬ 
BONS IN PLANTS 1 
A CONTRIBUTION FROM THE CHEMICAL LABORATORY OF THE PHILADEL¬ 
PHIA COLLEGE OF PHARMACY 
[At a stated meeting of the American Philosophical Society, 
Philadelphia, March 16, 1888, Miss Helen C. De S. Abbott 
made the following remarks on the Occurrence of a Series of 
New Crystalline Compounds in Higher Plants. 
“In many plants, especially those which belong to the natu¬ 
ral orders Simarubaceae, Polemoniacese, Rubiaceae, Ebenaceae, 
Rhodoraceae, and Composite occur, respectively, a class of com¬ 
pounds which present definite crystalline forms. They are ex¬ 
tracted from the plants most readily by a light petroleum-ether. 
Boiling absolute alcohol was used to purify these compounds 
from fats, wax, and coloring-matter, and by fractional crystalli¬ 
zation three distinct forms of crystals were obtained which in 
ultimate analysis represented compounds of different chemical 
constitution. 
“These bodies are characterized by containing a high per¬ 
centage of carbon. They are indifferent to alkalies and have 
high melting-points. The discovery of one of these compounds 
in Cas car a amarga was made by me in 1884, and announced 
at the Buffalo Meeting of the American Association for the Ad¬ 
vancement of Science. Since that time my investigations are 
continuing, and from those studies I am able to announce, as 
derived from plant sources, compounds which until now have 
not been observed. Lately, from independent investigations, 
Professor Henry Trimble has also discovered similar com- 
1 Printed in the American Journal of Chemistry , Philadelphia, July, 1888. 
Noticed in American Chemical Journal, vol. x, p. 439; also in Berichte d. 
Deutschen Chem. Ges., vol. xx, p. 202. In this investigation and report Mr. 
Trimble was associated with Miss Abbott. 
