390 
Analysis  of  Ilex  Cassine. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Phaim. 
1     Aug.,  1885. 
easily  soluble  in  chloroform,  which  gave  distinctly  the  tests  for 
caffeine,  especially  the  murexide  reaction,  and  very  closely  resembled 
a  specimen  of  pure  caffeine  from  Powers  &  Weightman. 
This  caffeine  formed  '32  per  cent,  of  the  dried  leaves.  Later  on,  in 
May,  a  much  larger  supply  of  the  same  leaves  was  gotten  from  the 
neighborhood  of  Wilmington.  A  more  thorough  examination  of  them 
was  then  made  with  the  following  results : 
Water  in  air- dried  sample.  13*19 
Extracted  by  water  26-55 
Tannin   7-39 
Caffeine    '27 
Nitrogen  (on  combustion)   "73 
Ash   5-75 
The  analysis  of  the  ash  is  shown  in  column  I. 
I.  II. 
CaO  10-99  12-34 
MgO  16-69  11-39 
Na,0   -47   7-28 
K.,0  27-02   2-98 
MnO.,   1-78   2-50 
Fe.,0,   '-6   3-41 
SO,   2-50   -92 
CI.'   -66   -71 
P,0,   3-34   5-54 
SiOo   1-32  44-75 
The  Mate  or  Brazilian  Holly  (Ilex  Paraguay ensis),  belongs  to  the 
same  genus.  Its  ash  analysis,  as  made  by  Senor  Arate,  is  given  in 
column  11.  The  plant  grows  wild  in  Brazil  and  is  very  largely  used 
by  the  South  Americans.  It  has,  according  to  Peckolt  (^^  Phar.  Jour. 
Trans."  [3],  14,  121-124,  "Am.  Jour.  Phar.,''  1883,  p.  570),  been 
planted,  and  seems  to  succeed  well,  in  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  Spain 
and  Portugal.  It  is  stated  that  six  different  species  of  ilex  are  used 
in  the  preparation  of  this  tea.  Peckolt  gives,  in  his  analysis  of  the 
air-dried  leaves,  the  percentage  of  caffeine  as  '639.  The  average  per- 
centage of  analyses,  by  different  authors,  is  about  1'3.  I  can  find 
mention  of  only  one  other  ilex  used  as  a  substitute  for  tea.  The  analy- 
sis of  this  by  Ryland  and  Brown  is  quoted  in  Blythe's  "  Composition 
and  Analysis  of  Foods,"  p.  343.  It  is  called  the  Ilex  Cassiva,  is  said 
to  be  used  as  a  tea  in  Virginia,  and  the  percentage  of  caffeine  is  given 
as  '12.  This  is  probably  the  same  thing  as  the  Yopon,  the  analysis 
of  which  is  given  above,  and  the  "  cassiva "  may  be  a  misprint  for 
"  cassine." — (See  Analysis  by  Henry  M.  Smith,  in  Am.  Jour.  Phar.y 
1872,  p.  216.) 
