Am.  Jour.  Pharm.1 
Aug.,  1890.  / 
Glycyrrhiza  Lepidota. 
389 
rhizomes  of  the  officinal  species.  The  younger  rhizomes  are  dull 
yellowish-brown  and  somewhat  scaly.  The  fracture  is  short,  the 
taste  sweet,  afterwards  somewhat  bitter.  The  bark  is  rather  thick, 
and  upon  transverse  section  shows  a  light  color  and  a  number  of 
rather  wavy  bast  fibres.  The  yellow  wood  is  divided  into  many 
narrow  wedges  by  narrow  medullary  rays,  the  woodwedges  being 
quite  porous  from  numerous  ducts,  and  internally  terminate  by  one 
or  two  dark  colored  cells  forming  a  circle  surrounding  the  pith. 
The  older  and  more  fully  developed  portions  of  the  rhizome  were 
selected  for  preparing  glycyrrhizin,  and  parallel  experiments  were 
made  with  officinal  liquorice  root.  The  powder  of  the  American 
drug  was  the  lighter  in  color.  The  powder  was  exhausted  with 
ammoniated  water,  the  solution  precipitated  with  sulphuric  acid, 
the  precipitate  washed  with  cold  water,  dissolved  in  ammonia  and 
again  precipitated ;  this  process  was  repeated  for  the  third  time,  when 
the  precipitate  was  dissolved  in  ammonia  and  the  solution  poured 
upon  glass  to  scale.  The  ammoniated  glycyrrhizin  from  the 
American  plant  had  a  somewhat  bitter  aftertaste.  Equal  weights 
of  both  products  were  then  dissolved  in  ammonia,  the  glycyrrhizin 
precipitated  by  acid,  and  washed  with  cold  water.  By  this  opera- 
tion the  loss  in  weight  of  the  product  from  the  officinal  drug  was 
21-87  per  cent.,  and  from  the  American  plant  25  per  cent.  Comparing 
the  results  we  have  from 
G.  glabra,      ammoniated  glycyrrhizin  9-2  per  cent.,  crude  glycyrrhizin  7-18  per  cent. 
G.  lepidota,  "  "  8-53      "  "  "    .  6*39 
Washing  the  crude  glycyrrhizins  with  diluted  alcohol  caused  a  loss  in 
the  former  of  43  per  cent.,  and  in  the  latter  of  50  per  cent,  of  the 
weight.    The  latter  also  lost  some  of  its  color  and  sweet  taste. 
The  result  of  this  investigation  of  G.  lepidota  was  unexpectedly 
large;  judging  by  the  taste  not  more  than  1  or  2  per  cent,  of  the 
crude  ammoniated  compound  was  expected  to  be  obtainable.  But 
the  plant  is  sufficiently  rich  in  the  sweet  principle  to  command 
notice. 
Phenyl  urethan  results  from  the  action  of  ethyl  chloride  upon  aniline,  and 
is  a  white  crystalline  powder,  insoluble  in  water,  but  freely  soluble  in  alcohol. 
Prof.  Giacomini,  of  Turin  {Jour,  de  Med.  de  Paris),  has  found  it  possessed  of 
marked  antipyretic  and  analgesic  properties,  a  dose  of  o'5  gm.  being  equal  in 
effect  to  1  gm.  of  antipyrin.  It  is  preferably  administered  dissolved  in  sherry 
wine,  to  prevent  cyanosis  and  other  unpleasant  symptoms. 
