THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
FEBRUARY,  1881. 
PRELIMINARY  NOTICE  of  a  NEW  VEGETABLE  COLOR- 
ING MATTER. 
By  Sam.  P.  Sadtler  and  Wm.  L.  Rowland. 
Read  at  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting  December  2\st,  1880. 
Some  months  since  onr  attention  was  drawn  to  a  variety  of  ^voocly 
called  Beth-a-harray  which  had  been  recently  imported  from  the  west 
coast  of  Africa,  and  was  mnch  vahied  for  its  extreme  toughness  and  its 
capability  of  receiving  a  high  polish. 
The  wood  is  compact,  very  heavy  and  in  color  very  nearly  resembles 
ordinary  black  walnut.  On  close  examination,  ho'wever,  the  interstices 
of  the  fibres  are  plainly  seen  to  be  filled  with  a  yellow  crystalline  pow- 
der. In  this  respect  it  differs  from  logwood,  barwood,  camwood  and 
red  sandal  wood,  with  which  it  Avas  compared.  In  these  woods  the 
color  is  uniformly  disseminated,  the  fibre  appearing  as  if  soaked  in  a 
solution  of  corresponding  color.  It  resembles  more  closely  the  yellow 
coloring  matter  of  rhubarb  and  of  araroba,  or  goa-powder,  which  com- 
pound, chrysoplianic  acid,  occurs  also  as  a  loose  yellow  crystalline 
powder  in  the  interstices  of  the  root.  Special  attention  was,  therefore, 
j^aid  to  its  resemblances  to  this  compound,  as  well  as  to  those  of  the 
well-known  dye-woods  mentioned  above. 
A  cross-section  of  the  Beth-a-barra  wood  appears  very  similar  to  the 
fernambouc  and  sappan  woods,  from  which  brasilin  is  obtained  (this 
Jour.,  p.  348,  1880).  It  bears  very  little  resemblance,  however,  to  the 
sections  of  logwood  and  the  other  therein-mentioned  woods  {loc.  cif.y 
p.  351). 
The  coloring  principle  was  extracted  from  the  shavings,  or  better 
yet,  the  sawdust  and  raspings  of  the  wood,  by  heating  with  distilled 
water  containing  a  little  sodium  carbonate.  This  produced  a  deej^ 
claret-red  solution,  which  was  then  filtered.  To  the  filtrate  acetic  acid 
was  added  in  slight  excess,  precipitating  the  coloring  matter  in  a  fine 
flocculent  condition;  this  was  filtered,  washed  and  then  dissolved  in 
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