546 
Notes  on  Henna. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
August,  1920. 
There  are,  however,  on  the  market  at  the  present  time  a  large 
number  of  so-called  Henna  Hair  Dyes  and  Henna  Hair  Compounds 
producing  as  many  as  eleven  different  shades.  Henna  alone  pro- 
duces only  a  few  shades  in  Auburn  according  to  the  concentration 
of  the  infusions.  The  many  shades  and  colors  produced  by  the 
numerous  hair  compounds  mainly  rely  upon  the  leaves  of  Indigojera 
tinctoria  known  as  "reng"  for  the  production  of  dark  colors,  and  the 
admixture  of  metallic  salts  with  plant  tannins  to  form  inks.  Among 
the  common  metallic  salts  used  are  SnCl2,  NiCl2,  FeS04,  CUSO4. 
In  a  recent  analysis  a  guaranteed  Henna  hair  compound,  con- 
sidered to  be  one  of  the  best  on  the  market  disclosed  the  following 
combination:  Powdered  Sumach,  Henna,  FeS04,  CUSO4.  These 
ingredients  were  placed  in  the  container  in  layers.  The  Sumach 
admixed  with  small  quantity  of  Henna  made  up  the  lower  layer. 
The  metallic  salts  in  a  powdered  form  were  admixed  with  50  per  cent, 
of  Powdered  Henna  making  up  the  second  layer  and  the  top  layer 
consisted  of  Powdered  Henna  leaves.  The  directions  indicated  the 
use  of  the  entire  contents  of  the  container  at  one  application.  These 
ingredients  made  up  ten  shades  of  dye  being  admixed  in  different 
proportions.  The  blond  color  of  this  dye  was  suspected  to  contain 
a  mixture  of  Henna  and  Picric  Acid,  the  latter  being  present  to  the 
extent  of  one-half  per  cent.  The  coloring  in  this  set  of  hair  dye  was 
dependent  upon  the  tannin  found  in  Sumach  and  Henna  which  pro- 
duced inks  with  the  metallic  salts  of  copper  and  iron ;  at  the  same  time 
these  metallic  salts  acted  as  mordants  to  the  dye  principle  present  in 
Henna. 
Another  analysis  of  a  different  set  of  dye  contained  a  mixture  of 
Pyrogallol  and  Henna  in  one  container  and  a  mixture  of  Ammonium 
Chloride  and  Copper  Sulphate  in  another.  The  Henna  in  this  case 
made  up  about  2  per  cent,  of  the  mixture. 
The  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  11  Edition,  1910-11  and  Lindslay 
state  that  Henna  contains  no  tannin  and  it  appears  that  numerous 
other  works  have  copied  and  recopied  this  statement  which  is 
erroneous. 
According  to  the  method  of  Herraony  in  the  American  Journai^ 
OF  Pharmacy,  Volume  35,  page  177,  a  tannin  can  be  extracted  from 
Henna  and  this  has  been  used  to  dye  hair,  being  very  efficient, 
acting  in  a  shorter  space  of  time  than  powdered  Henna. 
The  method  consists  of  extracting  the  chlorophyll  of  Henna  with 
ether,  then  percolating  the  residue  with  90  per  cent.  Alcohol,  dis- 
