74 
Notes  on  Beeswax. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pliarrru 
X    February,  1900. 
NOTES  ON  BEESWAX. 
By  H.  V.  Arny. 
To  the  writer  was  submitted  a  sample  of  yellow  wax  for  exami- 
nation ;  the  client — a  pharmacist — having  purchased  a  large  stock 
and  becoming  suspicious  of  presence  of  resin  (rosin).  It  was  'true 
that  the  specific  gravity  was  found  to  be  within  the  limits  prescribed 
for  pure  wax,  but  the  product  behaved  peculiarly  under  the  U.S.P. 
test  for  resin,  and — oh,  rule  of  thumb  ! — it  tasted  like  rosin  !  Before 
making  claim  of  reparation,  however,  the  pharmacist  appealed  to 
the  writer  for  his  opinion.  The  sample  was  of  clear,  good  color, 
of  the  correct  odor,  but,  on  chewing,  it  did  leave  an  acrid  taste, 
suggestive  of  resin,  U.S.P.  Its  specific  gravity  by  immersion  method 
at  20°  C.  was  0-9488  ;  by  Hager's  method  at  25 0  C.  it  was  0-9456. 
It  melted  at  64°-65°  C,  all  the  data  affirming  the  purity  of  the 
wax. 
Tested  by  pharmacopceial  methods,  it  showed  no  traces  of  paraffin 
nor  soap,  and,  emitting  no  acrolein  vapors,  contained  no  fats.  At 
the  resin  test,  however,  a  halt  was  necessary,  since,  when  boiling 
I  gramme  wax  with  35  c.c.  of  a  15  per  cent,  solution  of  soda,  the 
filtrate  yielded  a  precipitate  with  hydrochloric  acid — a  precipitate 
that  had  led  the  client  astray.  It  was  faint  and  flocculent,  and  struck 
a  practised  eye  as  something  other  than  rosin  ;  hence  other  resin 
tests  were  applied. 
Five  grammes  wax,  treated  with  cold  alcohol,  yielded  07441 
gramme  residue  on  evaporation  of  the  alcoholic  filtrate,  or  2-88 
per  cent.,  but  a  trifle  over  the  alcohol  soluble  part  (2-4  per  cent.)  of 
pure  wax.  Again,  Allen's  test  for  resin — nitric  acid  and  ammonium 
hydrate — gave  only  a  yellow  color,  showing  conclusively  the  absence 
of  resin. 
The  precipitate  by  the  U.S.P.  resin  test  was  evidently  not  caused 
by  resin,  and  its  flocculence  suggested  that  it  was  merely  cellulose 
dissolved  from  "the  filter  paper  by  the  15  per  cent,  solution  of  soda. 
Accordingly  the  test  was  repeated  with  the  liquid  that  had  been 
filtered  through  sand,  and  such  a  filtrate  produced  no  precipitate 
with  hydrochloric  acid,  showing  clearly  that  the  precipitate  in  the 
first-named  case  was  cellulose,  rather  than  abietinic  acid. 
It  is  therefore  advisable  that,  in  the  next  Pharmacopoeia,  the  text 
of  this  test  be  amended  to  read  "  no  precipitate  should  be  produced 
in  the  liquid  after  filtration  through  glass-wool  or  asbestos,  by  hydro- 
