Ammonol. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I     March,  1897. 
AMMONOL. 
By  George  M.  Beringer. 
The  manufacturers  state  that  "Ammonol  is  a  product  of  the 
Amido-benzene  series  (C6H5NH2).  It  differs  essentially  from  the 
other  medicinal  coal-tar  products,  especially  in  that  it  contains  am- 
monia in  an  active  form  and  has  a  stimulating  action  on  all  the  vital 
functions."  Its  medicinal  action  is  claimed  "  to  be  stimulant,  anti- 
pyretic and  analgesic."  The  chemical  composition  is  given  as 
"  Ammoniated-Phenylacetamide,"  but  the  chemical  formula  given 
on  the  label,  "  C6H5NH2,"  is  the  accepted  formula  for  amido-benzene, 
which  is  commonly  spoken  of  as  aniline. 
The  writer  was  induced  to  make  an  examination  of  this  valuable 
neiv  coaLtar  derivative  (?~).  It  is  a  powder,  having  a  very  faint  yel- 
low color,  put  up  in  i-ounce  vials.  The  odor  is  strongly  ammo- 
niacal,  and  on  smelling  the  vial  one  can  readily  detect  the  peculiar 
empyreumatic  odor  of  commercial  ammonium  carbonate.  On  closer 
examination,  even  with  the  naked  eye,  one  can  detect  small  parti- 
cles of  a  crystalline  character,  indicating  imperfect  comminution  of 
a  crystalline  ingredient.  This  is  the  so-called  amorphous  micro 
crystals  of  the  manufacturer's  description. 
One  gramme  of  the  powder  was  rubbed  up  with  20  c.c.  of  water 
and  poured  on  a  tared  filter,  and  the  mortar  and  filter  carefully 
washed  with  an  additional  10  c.c.  of  water  added  in  small  portions. 
After  drying,  the  residue  was  a  white  powder,  weighing  -360  gm. 
A  portion  left  no  ash  on  incinerating.  On  boiling  with  concentrated 
potassa  solution  it  was  converted  into  aniline,  and  with  chloroform 
readily  yielded  the  isonitrile  reaction.  From  these  tests,  also  sup- 
ported by  solubility  and  color  reactions,  I  was  led  to  conclude  that 
this  was  pure  phenylacetamide,  or  acetanilid.  According  to  the 
U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia,  acetanilid  is  soluble  in  194  parts  of  water,  and 
so  the  30  c.c.  of  water  used  would  have  extracted  -154  gm.,  and  this, 
added  to  the  undissolved  portion  on  the  filter,  would  give  the  total 
amount  of  acetanilid  as  -514  gm.,  or  about  50  per  cent. 
The  filtrate  was  a  light  canary-yellow-colored  solution,  and,  on 
testing,  showed  the  presence  of  sodium  and  ammonia  as  carbonates. 
The  filtered  solution  of  1  gm.  of  ammonol  in  30  c.c.  of  water,  evapo- 
rated on  the  water-bath,  yielded  a  residue  of  -222  gm.,  and  on  pro- 
longed heating,  minute  micaceous  crystals  separated  and  sublimed 
