Am  Jour.  Pharm. 
Jan.,  1890. 
Chemical  Notes. 
11 
posed,  by  boiling  with  concentrated  alkali  for  six  or  even  two  hours, 
but  every  one  who  has  prepared  the  acid  from  natural  oil  of  winter- 
green  or  birch  knows  the  difficulty  attending  the  separation  of  the  acid 
from  the  persistent  odor  of  the  hydrocarbon. 
We  consider  this  a  cardinal  point,  and,  therefore,  we  have  shown  at 
a  pharmaceutical  meeting  in  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy 
that  the  natural  oils  retain  a  pleasant  odor  after  warming  with  a  con- 
centrated solution  of  potassium  hydrate  in  a  test  tube,  while  the  arti- 
ficial oil,  of  which  we  showed  three  different  samples,  loses  all  agreable 
odor  almost  immediately  on  the  addition  of  the  same  reagent. 
In  conclusion  we  hope  the  Pharmacopoeia  Committee  will  in  no  way 
recognize  the  artificial  product,  since  if  we  accept  Prof.  Power's  state- 
ment it  is  manufactured  almost  exclusively  by  one  firm. 
The  Pharmacopoeia  is  published  for  the  physician  and  pharmacist, 
and  it  will  be  ample  time  to  recognize  the  artificial  oil  when  phy- 
sicians commence  to  designate  it  in  their  prescriptions,  which  is  not 
likely  to  be  the  case  as  long  as  they  write  for  salicylic  acid  from  the 
natural  oil. 
"With  this  we  close  our  notice  of  any  further  remarks  by  others 
unless  such  criticisms  are  accompanied  by  evidence  of  more  elaborate 
laboratory  work. 
CHEMICAL  NOTES. 
By  Henry  C.  C.  Maisch,  Ph.  G.,  Ph.  D. 
Examination  of  two  species  of  Polygala. — L.  Peuter  (meeting  of 
scientists  and  physicians,  Heidelberg,  through  Pharm.  Centralh.,  1889, 
p.  609)  obtained  from  the  root  of  Polygala  alba  senegin,  1*067  per 
cent. ;  resin,  0  85  per  cent. ;  fatty  oil,  0*2  per  cent. ;  methyl  salicylate, 
a  trace.  A  Japanese  senega  (according  to  Shimoyama,  possibly 
P.  tenuifolia),  yielded  9*6  per  cent,  of  a  brownish-yellow  mass,  which 
consisted  of  0*8  per  cent,  resin  and  8*8  per  cent,  oil  methyl  salicylate 
as  above,  the  odor,  however,  resembled  patchouly. 
Constituents  of  Urtica  urens  and  U.  dioica. — The  same  author  (I.  c.) 
extracted  from  the  powdered  leaves  after  treatment  with  slaked  lime 
and  water  and  evaporating  a  glucoside  which  was  free  from  nitrogen 
and  gave  precipitates  with  the  following  reagents  :  Iodo-iodide  of 
potassium,  potassio-mercuric  iodide,  platinum  chloride,  mercuric  chlor- 
ide, palladium  chloride,  phospho-tungstic  acid.    Potassium  ferricy- 
