THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
AUGUST,  1881. 
THE  ROOT  OF  IPOMGEA  PANDURATA. 
By  Constanz  Manz,  Ph.G. 
From  an  Inaugural  Essay. 
This  root,  commonly  known  as  Man-root,  Man-of-the-earth,  Wild 
Jalap  and  Wild  Potato,  is  elongated,  cylindrical,  two  or  three  feet 
long,  one  to  several  inches  thick  and  abruptly  contracted  above  to  the 
thickness  of  a  finger.  It  appears  in  commerce  in  transverse  and  lon- 
gitudinal slices,  with  the  bark  slightly  overlapping.  The  longitudi- 
nal slices  are  from  tive  to  eight  inches  in  length  and  from  one  to  two 
or  more  inches  in  width. 
The  root  is  of  a  brownish-gray  color  externally  and  grayish-white 
internally  and  presents  protrusions  of  resinous  matter  due  to  a  resin- 
ous milk-juice,  which  exudes  when  the  -root  is  cut  while  fresh.  A 
transverse  section  of  the  root  shows  a  cortical  portion  of  about  one- 
eighth  of  an  inch  in  thickness,  with  resin  cells  forming  a  dense  zone 
near  the  cambium  line ;  internally  it  consists  of  a  parenchymatous 
portion  which  is  somewhat  depressed,  and  contains  numerous  wood 
bundles  radiating  from  the  centre  and  numerous  resin  cells.  The 
root  has  a  short  and  rather  mealy  fracture,  a  sweetish  odor  and  a 
sweetish,  afterwards  bitter  and  slightly  acrid,  taste. 
Analysis. 
Thirty-two  troy  ounces  of  the  root  were  reduced  to  a  coarse  pow- 
der and  treated  with  alcohol,  sp.  gr.  '835,  until  the  percolate  ceased 
to  produce  cloudiness  on  being  dropped  into  water.  The  tincture 
was  evaporated  to  a  syrupy  consistence  and  precipitated  with  water, 
the  precipitate  collected,  dissolved  in  alcohol,  again  precipitated  and 
the  same  manipulation  repeated  until  the  water  ceased  to  acquire 
color.  The  resin  was  further  purified  by  filtering  its  alcoholic  solu- 
tion through  animal  charcoal  and  evaporating.  The  root  yields 
about  1'5  per  cent,  of  this  resin. 
The  aqueous  solutions  were  poured  together  and  evaporated,  leav- 
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