Am.  Jour.  Pharrn.\ 
June,  1896.  J 
Tannins  of  Some  Ericacece. 
315 
occurrence  of  both  kinds  of  tannin  in  the  normal  tissues  of  a  single 
order,  and  to  investigate  this  point  the  work  discussed  in  this  paper 
was  undertaken.  The  most  important  of  the  drugs  which  this 
family  of  plants  supplies  were  selected  because  of  the  interest 
attached  to  them  in  pharmacy  and  medicine.  The  official  drugs 
uva  ursi  and  chimaphila  were  investigated,  and  besides  these,  the 
leaves  of  gaultheria  and  of  manzanita,  the  stems  and  leaves  of 
mountain  laurel,  and  the  entire  plant  of  trailing  arbutus  were  exam- 
ined in  like  manner.  The  origin  of  the  drugs  may  be  thus  ex- 
pressed : 
Drug.  Origin.  Sub-Order. 
Uva  Ursi,  Arctostaphylos  uva  ursi,  Arbutese. 
Gaultheria,  Gaultheria  procumbeus,  Andromedeae. 
Chimaphila,  Chimaphila  umbellata,  Pyroleae. 
Manzanita,  Arctostaphylos  glauca,  Arbutese. 
Mountain  laurel,  Kalmia  latifolia,  Rhodoreae. 
Trailing  arbutus,  Epigsea  repens,  Ericineae. 
The  uva  ursi,  manzanita  and  chimaphila  were  purchased  in  the  drug 
market,  and  were,  of  course,  in  an  air-dried  condition,  while  the 
other  drugs  were  of  recent  collection.  These  were  allowed  to  be- 
come air-dried  and  were  then  ground.  The  method  of  extracting 
the  tannin  from  the  materials  consisted  in  percolating  the  latter 
with  acetone.  The  solvent  was  recovered  from  the  percolate  and 
the  resulting  semi-solid  extracted  matter  was  treated  with  water. 
Through  this  mixture  paper  pulp  was  suspended,  and,  after  thor- 
ough agitation,  these  materials  were  poured  upon  a  plug  of  cotton 
in  a  funnel.  The  filtrate  which  was  obtained  was  then  shaken  with 
successive  portions  of  acetic  ether,  as  long  as  this  solvent  continued 
to  remove  tannin  from  the  aqueous  liquid.  The  different  portions 
of  acetic  ether  so  applied  were  united,  and  the  entire  volume  dis- 
tilled under  diminished  pressure  on  a  water-bath  to  dryness.  To 
further  purify  the  residues  gotten  by  this  means,  they  were  treated 
with  water,  as  were  the  semi-solid  extracted  matters  from  which 
they  had  been  obtained.  Paper  pulp  was  likewise  distributed 
through  these  solutions,  and  the  resulting  mixtures  were  poured 
upon  cotton,  as  before.  This  treatment  served  to  separate  more  of 
the  resinous  and  other  non-tannin  substances,  for,  in  all  cases,  the 
residues  of  tannin  which  were  left  upon  recovering  the  acetic  ether 
(by  means  of  which  they  had  been  extracted  from  the  aqueous 
liquids)  showed  a  greater  degree  of  purity  than  that  possessed  by 
