600  Flowers  of  Verbascum  Thapsus.        { A%Ie0cu^oarm' 
after  treatment  with  dilute  alkali  and  acid  amounted  to  4-13 
per  cent.,  representing  cellulose  and  lignin. 
A  special  determination  of  saponin  showed  there  were  187  per 
cent,  of  this  substance  present,  and  to  this,  no  doubt,  -the  plant  owes 
its  peculiar  virtues,  since  this  indicates  in  the  absolutely  dry  bulb 
6-95  per  cent.,  sufficient  to  account  for  the  frothing  tendency  of  the 
different  watery  solutions. 
Brief  references  are  made  to  this  plant  in  this  journal,  1876,  p. 
520,  and  1877,  p.  569. 
THE  FLOWERS  OF  VERBASCUM  THAPSUS. 
By  Edwin  L.  Janson,  Ph.G. 
Contribution  from  the  Chemical  Laboratory  of  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy. — 
No.  80. 
Mullein  flowers  have  recently  attracted  some  attention  in  medical 
practice  and  are  extensively  employed  as  a  domestic  remedy. 
The  material  used  in  the  following  investigation  was  collected 
by  myself  near  Canton,  O.  Only  the  corolla  and  adhering  stamens 
were  used,  and  were  carefully  dried  so  as  to  retain  their  natural 
golden  yellow  color.  A  small  quantity  of  the  seeds  were  also  col- 
lected and  a  partial  analysis  made  of  them.  The  medicinal  proper- 
ties of  the  flowers  are  demulcent,  diuretic,  anodyne  and  antispas- 
modic. The  infusion  has  been  used  in  catarrhal  affections  of  the 
respiratory  organs,  and  the  flowers,  when  boiled  with  milk,  have 
been  a  popular  remedy  to  palliate  cough  and  diarrhoea.  The  odor 
of  the  flowers  when  fresh  is  slight,  but  when  dry  sweet  and  honey- 
like ;  the  taste  is  mucilaginous  and  somewhat  bitter. 
Petroleum  ether  and  stronger  ether  successively  used  on  the 
drug  extracted  about  one-half  per  cent,  in  each  case.  Quite  a 
change  in  the  color  of  the  drug  was  noticed  after  the  extraction  with 
ether.  It  was  at  first  light  yellow,  but  that  solvent  removed  the 
yellow  color  and  left  the  residue  of  a  dark  green  color.  The  yel- 
low coloring  matter  was  either  a  part  of,  or  else  it  was  retained  by, 
the  resin  dissolved  by  ether,  and  it  was  not  found  possible  to  sepa- 
rate it  in  the  pure  state.  The  drug  after  exhaustion  with  ether 
yielded  10-06  per  cent,  to  absolute  alcohol. 
A  considerable  portion  of  this  alcoholic  extract  was  soluble  in 
water  acidified  with  hydrochloric  acid.  When  agitated  with  petro- 
leum ether  this  acid  solution  yielded  some  color  to  petroleum  ether, 
