Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
March,  1889.  J 
Composition  of  Hydrangin. 
117 
IMMATURE  CUBEBS. 
By  C.  B.  Lowe. 
Read  at  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting,  February  19th. 
One  of  the  wholesale  firms  of  this  city  lately  received  from  a  New 
York  importer  a  sample  of  what  was  represented  to  be  cnbebs.  They 
are  about  one-third  the  size  of  true  cubebs,  with  a  stipe  about  one- 
third  longer  than  their  diameter,  are  of  a  dark  purple  color,  quite 
shrunken  appearance,  and  of  a  cubeb  odor,  but  much  weaker  taste. 
On  examination  with  the  microscope  they  are  seen  to  contain 
numerous  oil  cells  in  the  mesocarp,  but  the  layer  of  stone  cells  which 
forms  the  endocarp  in  the  true  cubebs  can  not  be  discerned. 
They  contain  a  very  rudimentary  seed.  In  my  opinion  they  are 
cubebs  which  have  been  picked  while  quite  immature,  the  present 
high  price  of  cubebs,  probably,  having  tempted  the  growers  to  put 
them  upon  the  market  in  this  condition. 
ON  THE  COMPOSITION  OF  HYDKANGIN. 
By  Hermann  J.  M.  Schrceter,  Ph.  G. 
A  contaibution  from  the  Chemical  Laboratory  of  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy. 
Read  at  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting,  February  19th. 
A  proximate  analysis  of  Hydrangea  arborescens,  and  a  description 
of  the  active  principle,  hydrangin,  was  published  in  the  Amer.  Jour, 
of  Pharmacy,  March,  1887,  by  C.  S.  Bondurant.  He  showed  the 
principle  which  he  had  discovered  to  be  a  glucoside,  and  gave  a  pro- 
cess for  preparing  it,  but  was  unable  to  pursue  his  investigations. 
The  object  of  this  paper  is  to  continue  this  work  and  determine  the 
ultimate  composition  of  this  interesting  compound. 
Five  kilos  of  the  finely  powdered  drug  were  percolated  to  exhaus- 
tion with  96  per  cent,  methyl  alcohol.  The  alcohol  was  recovered 
by  distillation  in  vacuo,  and  the  dark-brown  extract  further  reduced 
by  placing  over  sulphuric  acid.  Various  experiments  were  made  on 
the  best  method  for  extracting  the  principle.  A  portion  of  the  ex- 
tract was  treated  with  petroleum  ether  to  remove  fat,  etc,  but  it  was 
found  that  this  solvent  dissolved  an  appreciable  quantity  of  the  prin- 
ciple, therefore  this  treatment  was  omitted  with  the  bulk  of  the  ex- 
tract. The  residue  was  then  treated  with  successive  portions  of  a  one 
per  cent,  aqueous  solution  of  sulphuric  acid.    This  solution  was  col- 
