THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY 
SEPTEMBER,  igo8 
NATURAL  SALICYLATES. 
By  Dr.  Geo.  R.  Pancoast  and  W.  A.  Pearson. 
In  a  former  report  on  "  The  Adulteration  of  Volatile  Oils " 
(American  Journal  of  Pharmacy,  May  1908;  American  Druggist, 
April  27,  1908),  the  problem  of  the  detection  of  synthetic  methyl 
salicylate  in  admixtures  of  oils  of  birch  and  gaultheria  was  men- 
tioned. 
Since  the  so-called  natural  salicylates  have  met  with  such  wide- 
spread favor  as  therapeutic  agents,  there  has  been  a  tendency  on  the 
part  of  a  few  unscrupulous  distillers,  dealers  and  drug  merchants,  to 
substitute  the  low-priced  synthetic  products.  This  tendency  has 
more  rapidly  grown  as  there  has  been  no  accurate  means  of  detecting 
the  sophistication. 
For  some  years  chemists  have  endeavored  to  detect  the  presence 
of  synthetic  methyl  salicylate  when  added  to  oil  of  birch  or  gaul- 
theria, but,  owing  to  the  great  similarity  of  these  products,  the 
task  has  been  very  laborious.  All  three  of  these  products  contain 
at  least  99  per  cent,  of  absolute  methyl  salicylate. 
Oil  of  gaultheria  also  contains  small  quantities  of  a  paraffin 
(triacontane  C30H62?),  an  aldehyde  or  ketone,  a  secondary  alcohol 
(C30H16O),  and  an  ester  (C14H2402)  according  to  Power  and  Kleber 
The  ester  is  possibly  responsible  for  the  optical  rotation. 
Oil  of  birch  contains  about  99  8  per  cent,  of  methyl  salicylate 
and  in  addition  the  same  paraffin  and  ester,  but  not  the  alcohol. 
Synthetic  methyl  salicylate  contains  probably  ortho-  and  meta- 
(407) 
