220 
The  Xanthorrhoea  Resins. 
J  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\      May,  1881. 
large  proportion  of  carbazotic  (picric)  acid  with  little  nitrobenzoic  and 
oxalic  acid  (Stenhouse).  Trommsdorff  found  the  volatile  oil  to  be 
colorless^  fragrant  and  of  a  pungent  aromatic  taste.  The  resin  is  solu- 
ble in  solutions  of  the  alkalies  and  alkaline  earths.  On  dry  distilla- 
tion much  carbolic  acid  is  obtained^  with  a  small  quantity  of  a  light 
oil,  but  according  to  Sommer  no  umbelliferon.  In  1866,  Hlasiwetz 
and  Barth  ascertained  that  acaroid  resin  on  being  treated  with  fusing 
potassa  yields  large  quantities  of  paraoxy  ben  zoic  acid,  and  from  the 
mother-liquor  of  the  etherial  solution  a  little  resorcin  and  pyrocate- 
chin  w^as  obtained,  together  with  the  double  compound  of  protocate- 
chuic  and  paraoxybenzoic  acids  =  C14H12O7.2H2O,  which  had  been 
previously  obtained  from  benzoin. 
Three  different  xanthorrhoea  resins  were  found  by  Hirschsohn 
(1877)  to  be  incompletely  soluble  in  chloroform  and  ether,  but  to  dis- 
solve completely  in  alcohol,  the  solutions  acquiring  a  brown-black 
color  with  ferric  chloride.  The  solution  of  the  acaroid  resin  is  yellow 
and  yields  with  lead  acetate  a  precipitate,  while  the  solutions  of  the 
other  two  resins  are  red,  that  of  X.  quadrangulare  being  not  disturbed 
by  acetate  of  lead,  while  that  of  X.  arborea  produces  with  the  same 
reagent  a  turbidity  ;  the  chloroformic  solution  of  the  latter  is  yellow, 
that  of  the  former  colorless. 
The  xanthorrhoea  resins  have  been  repeatedly  suggested  as  possess- 
ing some  value  in  perfumery ;  but  they  appear  to  be  inferior  for  this 
purpose  to  benzoin,  storax  and  the  balsams  of  Peru  and  Tolu.  Their 
medicinal  properties  appear  to  be  likewise  not  well  marked.  As  early 
as  1795  acaroid  resin  was  said  by  Kite  to  neither  vomit,  purge  nor 
bind  the  belly,  nor  to  act  materially  as  a  diuretic  or  diaphoretic.  Dr. 
Fish  ("  Boston  Journal,"  x,  p.  94)  employed  it  in  the  form  of  tincture 
with  opium  in  fluxus  hepaticus  and  the  colliquative  diarrhoea  of 
phthisis,  and  it  has  been  recommended  in  chronic  catarrhs.  A  tincture 
of  acaroid  resin,  which  has  been  given  in  doses  of  f^i  to  ii  mixed  with 
milk  or  a  mucilaginous  liquid,  has  been  recommended  to  be  made  of 
equal  weights  of  the  resin  and  alcohol,  and  according  to  another  for- 
mula of  resin  sii  to  alcohol  Oi.  If  used  at  all,  the  latter  formula 
would  appear  to  furnish  a  preparation  of  proper  strength. 
