214 
INNER BARK OP THE ELDER TREE. 
water, and protochloride of tin, colour it violet ; dilute acids 
do not alter it. Its salts are brown, amorphous, have neither 
taste nor smell, are soluble in water, and most of them soluble 
in spirit of 0.912 sp. gr. The acid can be separated from all 
of them, if they had been rapidly evaporated in vacuo, by 
dilute sulphuric acid ; but if slowly at a gentle heat, the salts 
assume a black colour, leave on solution a black residue, and 
yield on the addition of sulphuric acid the papaveric acid with 
a yellowish-brown colour. If a few drops of dilute sulphuric 
acid are added to a solution of papaveric acid, a dark sediment 
subsides, which is also formed by the action of acetic acid. 
Chem. Gaz- from Buck. Rep. 
ART. XLIV. — CHEMICAL EXAMINATION OF THE INNER 
BARK OF THE ELDER TREE, (SAMBUCUS NIGRA.) 
By H. Kramer. 
The central green bark of the elder has an odour similar 
to the leaves of this tree, and a disagreeable bitter taste. The 
brown decoction is rendered darker by ammonia, yields a 
black precipitate with protoperchloride of iron, a white pre- 
cipitate with acetate of lead and a solution of corrosive sub- 
limate, and a dirty white precipitate with nitrate of silver. 
Tartar-emetic only produced a turbidness after some time; 
chloride of barium and oxalic acid gave slight white precipi- 
tates. The water distilled over the fresh bark somewhat re- 
sembled in smell the Jiq. Cort. Viburn.&xxA faintly reddened 
litmus-paper. By digestion with carbonate of baryta and eva- 
poration, a salt was obtained which possessed all the proper- 
ties of viburnate of baryta already described by the author.* 
* Viburnic acid likewise oceurs, according to the author, in the Flores Sam- 
hud. It is combined in the Aqaa ^amluci with ammonia, and occurs with 
essential oil and carbonate of ammonia. [This viburnic acid has been proved 
by Monro to be nothing more than valerianic acid. See p. 9 of the present 
volume. — Ed. Chem. Gaz.] 
