210 
SELECTED ARTICLES. 
ART. XXXV.— OF SASSARUBRIN, A RESIN EVOLVED BY 
SULPHURIC ACID FROM OIL OF SASSAFRAS, WHICH IS 
REMARKABLE FOR ITS EFFICACY IN REDDENING 
THAT ACID IN ITS CONCENTRATED STATE. By R. 
Hare, M.D., &c., &c., &c. 
fFrom the Jlmerican Philosophical Transactions. J 
The crimson colour produced by the admixture of oil of 
sassafras with sulphuric acid, is due to a peculiar resin, which 
I would call sassarubrin, being elaborated from the oil of 
sassafras, by its reaction with sulphuric acid, with phenomena 
which are striking, and, in some respects, singular. If a 
mixture be made of equal parts of the oil of sassafras, alcohol 
and sulphuric acid, on raising the temperature to a certain 
point, the whole mass rises up in a resinous foam, of a beauti- 
ful colour, between copper and purple, with a metallic bril- 
liancy. In some instances, it has been partially forced out 
of the retort through the beak in a cylindrical mass, which 
acquired, on cooling, the consistency of pitch. This pitchy 
substance is a compound of the resin above alluded to and 
sulphuric acid, with which it forms a soluble substance, neu- 
tralizing its sourness to a certain extent. By steeping this 
subacid compound in ammonia, straining, washing the residue 
with water, and desiccation, a brittle tasteless resin remains 
which is quite insoluble in water, but very soluble in alcohol 
and hydric ether. 
The addition of this sassarubrin to concentrated sulphuric 
acid, produces the crimson colour already mentioned as 
resulting from the presence in that liquid of a minute portion 
of oil of sassafras. I infer that the colour is due to the evo- 
lution of sassarubrin, which has a bassic affinity for the acid, 
to which it owes its birth. The ethereal and alcoholic solu- 
tions of sassarubrin are of the colour of a dingy white wine. 
