204 
The  Gambir  of  Commerce. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharrn. 
May,  1907. 
as  to  the  quality  of  certain  commercial  specimens,  and  some  diffi- 
culty was  reported  in  obtaining  it  at  all  in  some  quarters. 
In  order  to  ascertain  whether  or  not  these  criticisms  were  justly 
applied,  the  writer  obtained  twelve  samples  of  the  drug  from  various 
wholesale  and  importing  houses  and  made  comparative  examinations 
in  order  to  obtain  an  idea  as  to  the  quality. 
The  standard  of  the  U.S.P.,  8th  Rev.,  is  that  "  not  less  than  70 
per  cent,  should  be  soluble  in  alcohol,  and,  when  incinerated,  it 
should  not  yield  more  than  5  per  cent,  of  ash."  These  require- 
ments are  but  slightly  different  from  those  for  the  catechu  of  the 
former  pharmacopoeia,  which  required  not  over  6  per  cent,  of  ash, 
and  not  more  than  1  5  per  cent,  residue  dried  after  extraction  with 
alcohol. 
There  seemed  to  be  no  difficulty  at  all  in  getting  samples  and 
quotations  from  various  sources.  The  physical  appearance  of  the 
samples  varied  greatly  ;  some  being  in  cubes,  some  in  masses  taken 
from  the  matts  in  which  it  is  allowed  to  harden,  and  some  of  soft 
pasty  consistency,  in  glass  jars.  These  latter  samples  were  quite 
mouldy  and  in  bad  condition,  and  one  of  the  matt  samples  showed 
evidence  of  having  been  mouldy  before  it  had  become  dry  and  hard, 
and  in  these  samples  there  was  a  characteristic  musty  odor  in  the 
tincture  and  in  the  aqueous  infusion,  although  in  no  sense  could  this 
odor  be  classed  as  objectionable  or  offensive,  a  criticism  which  had 
been  made  of  some  of  the  market  samples. 
A  comparison  of  the  figures  and  descriptions  in  the  accompany- 
ing table  will  show  that  the  article  as  obtained  in  the  form  of  cubes 
is  fully  up  to  the  U.S. P.  requirements,  and  that  if  samples  are  pur- 
chased possessing  the  physical  characteristics  of  light  color  and 
freedom  from  mouldiness  there  need  be  little  fear  of  not  obtaining  a 
satisfactory  article. 
Of  the  twelve  samples  examined,  seven  were  fully  up  to  the  U.S. P. 
requirements,  and  of  the  remaining  five,  three  would  be  rejected 
by  the  most  inexperienced  person  on  account  of  inferiority  of  phys- 
ical characters. 
The  unfavorable  reports  which  have  emanated  concerning  the 
quality  of  gambir  are  not  warranted  by  the  condition  of  the  article 
as  sold  for  medicinal  purposes,  but  have  probably  originated  in  the 
confusion  of  samples  which  were  intended  for  such  crude  uses  as  in 
boiler  compounds  and  for  dyeing  and  calico  printing. 
