514 
Poison  Sumac. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I  November,  1907. 
anhydride  and  dry  sodium  acetate,  an  acetyl  derivative  was  obtained 
which  was  not  at  all  similar  to  the  parent  substance.  The  new  com- 
pound was  a  pale  yellow,  viscous,  sticky  liquid,  amounting  to  122  9 
per  cent,  of  the  resin  from  which  it  was  derived,  and  resembling 
honey  in  odor  and  appearance.  Like  its  parent  resin,  it  was  dark- 
ened by  alkalies  and  attacked  by  bromine.  It  was  neither  crystal- 
line, volatile  nor  poisonous. 
An  attempt  was  made  to  separate  the  benzin-soluble  resin  into 
two  or  more  constituents  by  shaking  with  alcohol  and  petroleum 
benzin  in  immiscible  proportions  as  follows: — 25  c.c.  of  the  resinous 
substance  were  dissolved  in  300  c.c.  of  benzin  (b.  p.  below  500  C), 
and  shaken  out  first  with  66  per  cent,  alcohol  in  four  portions  100  c.c, 
25  c.c,  25  c.c,  and  25  c.c.  each ;  then  with  85  per  cent,  alcohol  in  the 
same  quantities  and  in  the  same  order  as  above.  On  evaporation 
all  three  solvents  yielded  dark,  amber- red  fluid  resins  which  resembled 
the  parent  substance  in  properties  and  appearance.  The  66  per 
cent,  alcoholic  fraction  amounted  to  but  1 5  c.c.  from  a  400  c.c  sample 
(3'75  Per  cent.),  so  that  but  few  experiments  were  made  with  it. 
The  other  two  fractions  were  each  poisonous.  The  one  soluble  in 
85  per  cent,  alcohol  had  a  specific  gravity  of  0  9856  at  25 0  C./250 
C;  the  other  a  specific  gravity  of  09703  at  250  C./250  C.  We 
are  inclined  to  believe  that  no  actual  separation  was  made  by  this 
method,  as  each  fraction  yielded  a  black  insoluble  soap,  together  with 
some  insoluble  matter  on  saponification,  and  each  gave  a  non-poison- 
ous, non-volatile,  acetyl  derivative  of  similar  properties.  Many 
attempts  were  made  to  determine  the  saponification  numbers  of 
these  products;  but,  as  was  the  case  with  the  benzin-insoluble  resin, 
the  soap  solutions  were  too  dark  to  determine  the  point  of  neutrality 
with  exactness.  By  employing  alcoholic  KOH,  numbers  were  ob- 
tained ranging  from  238-7  to  321  4  for  the  resins,  and  from  459  9 
to  510-0  for  their  acetyl  derivatives.  Barium  hydroxide  in  hydro- 
alcoholic  solution  was  also  tried,  but  the  results  were  no  more  satis- 
factory than  with  KOH.  In  this  case  the  excess  of  barium  hydroxide 
was  determined  gravirnetrically  after  precipitating  and  filtering  out 
the  insoluble  barium  compound.  The  barium  compound  was 
bluish-gray  in  color  and  non-poisonous. 
