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Testing  of  Peru  Balsam. 
J  Am,  Jour.  PL  arm  ► 
June,  1881. 
leuni  boiling  at  /iO°  to  70°C.  may  be  very  well  adapted;  the  yield 
must  be  determined  by  testing  numerous  samples  of  the  balsam.  It 
would  be  a  progressive  step  if  the  balsam  were  directly  abandoned,, 
and  in  its  stead  the  cinnamein  extracted  by  petroleum  introduced;, 
although  in  opposition  thereto  is  the  fact  that  the  odor  of  the  cinna- 
mein thus  obtained,  which  presumably  is  never  perfectly  pure  benzyl 
cinnamate,  by  no  means  precisely  represents  the  odor  of  the  crude 
balsam.  Furthermore,  such  a  purification  of  Peru  balsam  would 
doul)le  or  treble  its  necessarily  high  price  without,  however,  offering  a 
very  great  advantage.^  By  such  a  procedure  the  adulteration  would 
be  crippled,  in  as  far  as  serviceable  figures  for  the  limit  of  the  amount 
of  cinnamein  may  be  determined.  The  author  is  at  present  not 
inclined  to  advise  directing  the  determination  of  the  cinnamein,  for 
example  in  the  Pharmacopoeia;  but  a  reliable  method  of  testing  the 
balsam  will  be  given  below,  which  is  based  upon  the  fact  that  cin- 
namein is  quite  stable  in  its  behavior  towards  alkalies. 
Besides  the  cinnamein,  the  resin  of  Peru  balsam  may  be  also  employed 
as  a  test,  which  is  already  the  case  in  the  German  Pharmacopoeia  of 
1872.  Tlie  resin  can  be  separated  much  better,  as  above  mentioned^ 
by  means  of  carbon  bisulphide  or  petroleum.  The  amount  of  this 
resin  in  a  pure  balsam  appears  to  exceed  one-third,  and,  indeed,  io 
amount  to  about  two-fifths;  most  of  the  admixtures  will  have  the 
effect  of  decreasing  the  weight  of  the  resin  separated  by  carbon  bisul- 
phide or  petroleum,  and  inversely,  to  increase  the  amount  of  the  por- 
tion taken  up  by  those  liquids,  i.  e.,  apparently  to  furnish  more  cin- 
namein. As  the  cinnamein  and  resin  are  determined  in  the  same 
operation,  the  same  objections  apply  to  the  latter  as  to  the  quantitative 
estimation  of  the  cinnamein.  In  a  like  manner  the  property  of  thi& 
resin,  on  the  other  hand,  of  not  being  rapidly  attacked  by  alkalies,  is 
of  value. 
In  the  third  place,  the  free  acid  which  occurs  in  the  balsam,  chiefly 
cinnamic  acid,  offers  a  point  of  attack  of  which  the  German  Pharma- 
copoeia has  also  already  made  use,  although  in  a  manner  which  leaves 
^It  may  here  be  called  to  mind  that  vaseline  also  extracts  from  Peru 
balsam  principally  the  cinnamein,  the  odorous  principle,  while  the  odor- 
less resin  is  separated  just  as  well  as  by  mixing  the  balsam  with  liquid 
petroleum.  Wlien,  therefore,  the  objection  is  made  that  vaseline  (Ger- 
man) does  not  mix  with  Peru  balsam,  it  is  only  to  be  referred  to  that 
behavior  which,  practically,  must  be  regarded  as  an  advantage. 
