THE 
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACY. 
OCTOBER, 1846. 
ART. XXX.— -OBSERVATIONS ON THE FRUIT OF DIOSPYROS 
VIRGINIANA. 
BY BENJAMIN R. SMITH. 
{Extracted from an Inaugural Essay, ) 
(1.) A quantity of persimmons gathered toward the latter 
end of August, were beaten to a pulp and treated with 
water, the solution was filtered in order to render it per- 
fectly clear. To separate portions of the liquor, solutions 
of gelatin, sulphate of quinia and sub-acetate of lead 
were added ; they all caused copious, white, flocculent pre- 
cipitates. The precipitate with lead was thrown on a fil- 
ter, and in the course of half an hour passed through all 
the changes, from white to a dark orange, and finally to a 
deep brownish black. A solution of sulphate of iron co- 
loured the infusion a deep purple. Both nitric and sulphuric 
acids threw down precipitates, the former of a dirty orange 
colour, the latter white. After the infusion had been sub- 
mitted to the action of sub-acetate of lead, and filtered, a 
solution of gelatin had no effect on the filtered liquor, and 
sub-acetate of lead had no effect on the liquid filtered 
from a precipitate with gelatin, so that whatever be the 
principle to which the persimmon owes its astringency, these 
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