OM TWO VARIETIES OF FALSE JALAP. 
151 
a faint odor of Jalap, but is destitute, to a great extent, of its 
flavor. The dust too, arising from it, is much les3 irritating to 
the air passages. 
The second variety is a tuber possibly of an orchidate plant, a 
good deal resembling in shape, color and size, a butternut, (Ju- 
glans cinerea.) Externally it is black or nearly so, in some 
places shining as if varnished by some resinous exudation, but 
generally dull, marked by deep longitudinal cuts extending al- 
most to the centre of the tubers ; internally it is yellow or yel- 
lowish white, having a somewhat horny fracture, and marked in 
its transverse sections with dots, as if from sparse, delicate fibres. 
When first imported the root is comparatively soft, but becomes 
dry and brittle by keeping. Its odor resembles that of Jalap, 
and its taste is nauseous, sweetish, and mucilaginous. 
This root contains no resin whatever. Treated with boiling 
water it yields a large amount (75 per cent.) of extract. This is 
soluble, to a great extent, likewise in alcohol. With iodine no 
blue color is produced. 
The extract obtained from this drug appears, in ordinary 
doses, perfectly inert, five or ten grains producing, when swal- 
lowed, no effect whatever. Is this root employed for the purpose 
of obtaining its extract, and is this latter sold as genuine extract 
of Jalap ? 
Of the effect which frauds of this kind cannot fail to have on 
the practice of medicine it does not fall within my province to 
speak, but commercially its working is sufficiently obvious. One 
hundred pounds of Jalap at the market price, 60 cents per pound, 
will cost §60. In extracting this there will be about §5 worth of 
alcohol, making in all §65. There will be obtained forty pounds 
of extract, costing thus §1 62J- per pound. 
One hundred pounds of false Jalap, No. 1, may be obtained 
for §20 ; admitting the alcohol to cost §5, it will make in all 
$25. This will produce thirty-six pounds of extract, costing 
rather less than 70 cents per pound. 
One hundred pounds of variety No. 2 may be had for §20, 
and no alcohol is necessary in obtaining the extract. The yield 
being seventy-five pounds, the extract will cost rather less than 
twenty-seven cents per pound — JV. Y. Journal of Pharmacy, 
Jan. 1852. 
