244  Starch  and  Strontium  in  Opium,  {Am£^i8p9?arm' 
THE  PRESENCE   OF  STARCH    AND   STRONTIUM  SUL- 
PHATE IN  OPIUM  AND  THEIR  INFLU- 
ENCE ON  ASSAYING. 
By  Lyman  F.  Kebeer  and  Charees  H.  LaWaee. 
Although  poppy  juice  does  not  contain  any  starchy  matter,  yet 
the  presence  of  this  article  in  opium  has  been  reported  in  a  number 
of  instances.  According  to  the  Pharmacographia,  p.  47,  Egyptian 
opium  sometimes  contains  an  abundance  of  starch.  Mr.  Mjben,1 
who  has  probably  made  the  most  exhaustive  microscopic  study  of 
opium  on  record,  reports  that  Persian  opium  is  abundantly  contam- 
inated with  wheat  and  leguminous  starch.  More  recently  Mr.  Jel- 
liffe,2  in  a  report  at  the  regular  meeting  of  the  New  York  College  of 
Pharmacy,  stated  that  from  5  to  10  per  cent,  of  starch  was  found  in 
the  samples  examined. 
We  ourselves  have  found  wheat  starch  in  opium  assayed  dur- 
ing the  past  two  years.  Mr.  Moerk  kindly  sent  us  six  samples 
of  opium  from  three  to  five  or  six  years  old  and  every  one  con- 
tained wheat  starch.  The  amount  varied  from  a  trace  to  8 
per  cent.,  but  it  was  always  present.  Why  the  starch  is  there 
and  how  it  came  to  be  there  we  can  only  surmise.  In  some 
cases  it  may  have  been  added  for  gain,  but  from  the  small 
quantity  present  in  some  samples  its  presence  may  be  accidental. 
Persian  opium  is  exported  to  Constantinople,  by  way  of  Trebizond, 
and  is  there  worked  up  into  forms  to  imitate  the  Asia  Minor  opium. 
Here  is  probably  the  source  of  contamination  with  starch,  since  Per- 
sian opium  contains  much  of  this. 
Before  leaving  the  question  of  starch,  a  few  words  about  its  esti- 
mation in  this  connection  may  not  be  out  of  place.  There  are  two 
ways  of  arriving  at  approximate  results — microscopically  and  chem- 
ically.   The  one  is  probably  as  accurate  as  the  other. 
Microscopically,  dry  the  opium,  note  moisture  and  reduce  to  a 
fine  powder.  Weigh  out  1  gramme  of  the  powder,  introduce  it 
into  a  mortar  containing  2  c.c.  of  alcohol ;  with  a  pestle  rub  up  the 
opium  well,  add  8  c.c.  of  simple  syrup  and  mix  intimately.  Of  this 
mixture  prepare  a  slide  and  by  means  of  an  ocular  micrometer, 
divided  into  square  millimeters,  count  the  number  of  granules  in  a 
1 1895,  Arch.  d.  Pharm.,  233'  533. 
2 1897,  Am.  Drug.,  30,  41. 
