Am.  lour.  Pharai."i 
March,  1902.  _f 
Recent  Drug  Adulterations. 
J39 
former  statement  relative  to  the  percentage  (less  than  5  per  cent.) 
of  adulterations  met  with  well  covers  this  point. 
The  following  interesting  adulterations  have  been  met  with  by 
the  writer  and  other  workers  in  various  sections  of  the  world  : 
ARTIFICIAL  CINNAMON  BARK. 
Guava  (Jungle  Bark)  can  be  placed  on  the  Columbo  market  at  a 
very  reasonable  price.  This  bark  resembles  cinnamon  bark  very 
closely,  and,  consequently,  certain  unprincipled  individuals  have 
taken  this  bark,  scented  it  with  oil  of  cinnamon,  or  the  by-products 
in  the  distillation  of  the  cinnamon  oils,  and  offered  it  as  cinnamon 
bark.  A  superficial  examination  of  this  bark  would  not  reveal  its 
identity. — Pharm.  Centralblatt,  42,  526. 
CROTON  OIL  IN  TINCTURE  OF  IODINE. 
It  has  been  reported  that  the  above  oil  has  been  found  in  tincture 
of  iodine.  (Tincture  of  iodine  and  croton  oil  resemble  each  other 
in  that  they  are  irritants  to  the  skin,  but  here  their  similarity  ends. 
No  one  would  ever  think  of  applying  croton  oil  where  iodine  was 
indicated.  Whether  the  above  adulteration  is  an  ingenious  one 
from  the  druggist's  point  of  view  is  questionable.  The  object,  of 
course,  was  to  make  the  tincture  more  efficient  by  using  a  small 
quantity  of  croton  oil.  When  it  is  remembered  that  croton  oil  will 
take  up,  at  least,  100  per  cent,  of  iodine,  and  thus  tend  to  make  the 
tincture  of  a  lighter  color,  and  at  the  same  time  it  is  questionable 
whether  the  hypothetical "  Crotonoleic  Acid  "  will  retain  its  normal 
irritating  properties  when  combined  with  iodine,  such  an  admixture 
would,  on  general  principles,  be  considered  very  injurious.  L.  F.  K.) 
— Brit,  and  Colonial  Drug.,  40,  176. 
A  NEW  ADULTERATION  OF  BERGAMOT. 
Dr.  Salvatore  Gulli  (Chemist  and  Druggist,  59,  699)  notes 
that  the  commercial  adulteration  of  oil  of  bergamot,  by  means 
of  either  the  crude  or  other  inferior  bergamot  distillates,  or  by 
isomeric  peel  essences,  has  almost  ceased,  because  the  normal 
physical  properties  are  usually  abnormally  distributed  by  such  addi- 
tion. New  falsifications  are,  however,  making  their  appearance. 
One  of  the  ingredients  chiefly  distributed  is  the  per  cent,  of 
linalyl  acetate,  which  it  is  the  desire  of  the  manipulator  to  be 
