THE  AMEEICAIsT 
•JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY 
MARCH,  1917 
THE  AIMS  AND  DEVELOPMENTS  OF  PMtTOcA^iML 
RESEARCH.1  / 
{   tmi6lm  \ 
By  Frederick  B.  Powe^^  ^  <q  J 
It  is  not  very  long  ago  since  there  was  a  wi^fl^ir^^lfft^con- 
ception,  which  apparently  to  some  extent  still  exists,  that  the  chemical 
examination  of  plants  is  a  comparatively  simple  procedure,  requiring 
for  its  accomplishment  neither  very  broad  chemical  knowledge  nor  a 
high  degree  of  manipulative  skill.  This  view  is  doubtless  to  be  at- 
tributed to  the  fact  that  in  past  years  many  so-called  proximate 
analyses  of  plants  have  been  conducted  which  consisted  of  but  little 
more  than  the  extraction  of  a  small  amount  of  some  vegetable  ma- 
terial with  various  solvents,  and  subjecting  the  products  to  a  super- 
ficial examination.  In  this  way  it  has  been  possible  for  those  pos- 
sessing but  little  chemical  training  to  record  the  occurrence  of  such 
widely  distributed  classes  of  organic  compounds  as  volatile  and  fatty 
oils,  resins,  sugar,  tannin,  and  the  simpler  organic  acids,  while  the 
larger  proportion  of  undetermined  material  was,  as  a  rule,  quite  con- 
veniently designated  as  extractive  matter.  To  such  observations  may 
have  been  added  an  occasional  indication  of  the  presence  of  an 
alkaloid  or  a  glucoside. 
It  is  not  by  any  means  my  intention  to  deprecate  or  discourage 
such  simple  determinations  as  those  to  which  I  have  alluded,  pro- 
vided they  be  accurately  and  intelligently  conducted,  for  in  the  in- 
vestigation of  any  vegetable  material  certain  preliminary  tests  are 
desirable  and  important,  both  in  order  to  obtain  some  general  in- 
formation respecting  its  character  and  for  the  purpose  of  ascertain- 
1  An  address  delivered  before  the  Washington  Chemical  Society,  Novem- 
ber 23,  1916,  and  approved  for  publication  by  the  Secretary  of  Agriculture. 
(97^ 
