Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
January,  1920.  ) 
The  Santonin  Market. 
45 
for  packing  in  containers  or  tubes,  and  tight  packing  is  essential 
to  regularity  and  length  of  burning.  Consequently  such  substances 
as  boiled  or  castor  oil,  paraffin  wax,  shellac,  borax,  bird-lime  and 
even  small  percentages  of  sodium  nitrate  (which  is  deliquescent), 
are  incorporated,  and  allow  of  more  compact  packing.  These 
flare  combinations  will  all  stand  quite  a  lot  of  direct  pressure,  but 
glancing  blows  or  friction  should  be  avoided.  They  are  less  sensi- 
tive than  gunpowder,  but  must  nevertheless  be  looked  upon  as 
explosives,  and  though  they  burn  safely  enough  with  free  access 
to  the  air,  under  conditions  of  confinement  they  are  liable  to  vio- 
lent explosion. 
THE  SANTONIN  MARKET. i 
The  recent  enormous  advance  in  the  price  of  this  vermifuge, 
hitherto  regarded  as  indispensible,  took  by  surprise  even  those  who 
have  been  closely  following  the  upward  movements  from  time  to 
time.  In  view,  however,  of  the  fact  that  the  sole  source  of  supply 
is  Eastern  Turkestan,  which  part  of  the  world  would  appear  to  have 
come  wholly  under  the  control  of  the  Bolshevists,  the  successive 
advances  in  price  which  had  hitherto  taken  place  can  hardly  be 
said  to  have  come  as  a  surprise.  But  the  last  advance  was  staggering. 
Fifty  pounds  sterling  per  kilo.  (is.  per  gram),  or  nearly  twenty- 
two  pounds  fifteen  shillings  (more  exactly,  22£  13s.  6d.)  per  lb., 
is  now  the  price  of  a  drug  which  between  twenty  and  thirty  years 
ago  was  obtainable  in  cwt.  lots  at  four  shillings  (4s.)  per  lb.  This 
lowest  price  was  the  result  of  competition  between  the  various  pro- 
ducers of  santonin  prior  to  the  amalgamation  of  the  various  factories 
in  Turkestan,  and  consequent  total  elimination  of  competition. 
It  is  stated  that  the  immediate  cause  of  this  late  enormous  advance 
has  been,  firstly,  the  total  cessation  of  fresh  imports,  and,  secondly, 
the  gradual  diminution  of  stock  in  London,  there  being,  so  far  as 
is  known,  no  stock  held  in  any  other  part  of  the  world  which  could 
become  available  in  the  direction  of  averting  the  threatened  famine. 
The  quite  small  stock  of  santonin  held  here  is  in  the  hands  of  the 
Eastern  and  Russian  Trading  Co.,  Ltd.,  which  company,  it  is  under- 
stood, is  the  sole  representative  of  the  combined  Turkestan  fac- 
tories, and  will,  when  matters  have  settled  down  and  have  again 
^  From  The  Chemist  and  Druggist,  November  15,  1919. 
