THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
JANUARY,  1889. 
THE  HUNGARIAN  DAISY  AS  AN  ADULTERANT  OF 
INSECT  POWDER. 
By  G.  M.  Beringer,  A.  M.,  Ph.G. 
Read  at  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting,  December  18th. 
A  short  time  ago,  there  was  received  in  New  York  a  consignment, 
consisting  of  a  number  of  bales  of  these  Hungarian  Daisies.  They 
were  entered  at  the  Custom  House  as  insect  flowers  and  were  evidently 
intended  as  a  sophistication  of  the  Dalmatian  Insect  Powder.  In  the 
course  of  business,  a  sample  of  these  flowers  was  submitted  to  the 
writer. 
The  similarity  in  size  and  general  appearance  to  the  flowers  of  the 
Dalmatian  powder,  would  easily  deceive  the  careless  or  unguarded 
observer.  On  close  inspection,  however,  with  a  microscope  of  ordi- 
nary powers,  the  differences  in  the  botanical  structure  are  such  as  to 
render  the  distinction  between  the  whole  flowers  comparatively  easy. 
But  as  they  will,  probably,  in  future  importations,  be  mixed  with  the 
genuine,  which,  usually,  as  imported  in  bales,  are  very  much  broken 
up,  they  will  prove  a  dangerous  adulterant,  one  difficult  to  deter- 
mine, and  if  in  the  powdered  article  most  likely  beyond  detection. 
The  Dalmatian  Insect  Powder  has  proven  so  superior  to  the  Per- 
sian powder,  that  it  has  driven  the  latter  almost  entirely  out  of  the 
market.  It  is  said  to  be  the  most  valuable  product  of  Dalmatia  and 
is  now  imported  in  very  large  quantities.  As  imported,  it  is  usually 
adulterated  with  the  ground  stems  and  leaves  of  the  plant.  The  lat- 
ter being  cut  down  at  the  end  of  the  season,  dried,  ground  and  mixed 
with  the  ground  flowers  in  the  proportion  of  one  to  three  or  four  of 
the  flowers.    This  accounts  for  the  fact,  that  the  whole  flowers  are- 
