230 
ON SAGAPENUM AND ELEMI. 
ART. L. — ON SAGAPENUM AND ELEMI. By A. J. Cooley. 
Sagapenum. 
This substance is described in the London Pharmacopoeia 
as a gum resin, the production of an uncertain species of ferula. 
Willdenow, Sprengel, and Fee considered it to be the produce 
of the Ferula persica, but this opinion appears to be unsup- 
ported by any direct evidence, (Pereira,) and up to the pre- 
sent time, the question is quite as unanswerable as it was 
2,000 years ago. What renders this ignorance the more sin- 
gular is the fact that sagapenum is not a medicine of yesterday, 
but was known to antiquity. Hippocrates, who died B. C. 
361, as well as Dioscorides, mention this substance; and the 
latter even asserts that it is the liquid produce of a ferula grow- 
ing in Media. Pliny, the Roman naturalist, also mentioned 
£< Sacopenium" nearly 1,800 years ago. 
The sagapenum of commerce is either met with under the 
form of agglutinated tears of a yellowish-brown color, or in 
tough irregular masses. It posseses an odor and appearance 
intermediate between assafoetida and galbanum. When heat- 
ed it evolves a peculiar smell, partaking of garlic and juniper, 
which is neither so powerful nor disagreeable as that of the 
foetid gum. Accoding to the analyses of Pelletier and Brand es, 
it consists of: — 
Pelletier. B ramies, 
Resin, soluble in alcohol, and partly soluble 
in ether, 54.26 50.29 
Gum, - - 31.94 
Do. with calcareous salts, - 32.72 
Volatile oil, of a yellow color, lighter than 
water, smelling strongly of assafoetida, and 
soluble in ether and alcohol, - 7.20 3.73 
Bassorin, 1.00 4.48 
Malate of lime, - - - - I i 00 112 
Phosphate of do., &c. $ 
Loss, (water,) 4.60 4.60 
Foreign matter, 4.30 
100.00 101.24 
