264 
Commercial  Aloes. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
June,  1903. 
sweet  almonds  in  cold  cream.  It  was  thought  at  the  time  that  this 
preparation,  beautiful  in  appearance,  easily  made  and  apparently 
keeping  indefinitely,  would  replace  the  long-tried  official  cold  cream, 
but  it  has  been  shown  that  its  use  is  limited.  The  well-known  cool- 
ing effect  of  a  cold  cream  when  applied  to  a  chafed  or  sunburnt 
skin  will  not  follow  if  the  preparation  be  made  with  liquid  petro- 
latum. However,  for  theatrical  trade,  the  removal  of  face-paints, 
etc.,  it  has  a  well-deserved  popularity  and  may  there  be  used  to 
advantage  at  least  for  cheapness. 
COMMERCIAL  ALOES. 
By  Martin  I.  Wilbert, 
Apothecary  at  the  German  Hospital,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
( Concluded  from  p.  214.. ) 
CHEMISTRY  OF  ALOES. 
For  many  years  it  was  thought  that  the  active  constituent  of 
aloes  was  aloin.  This  principle,  differing  as  it  did  in  physiologic 
activity,  as  well  as  chemical  properties,  was  usually  named  accord- 
ing to  the  aloes  from  which  it  was  derived.  Thus  we  had  :  barb- 
aloin  from  Barbadoes  aloes;  soc-aloin  from  Socotrine  aloes;  zan- 
aloin  from  Zanzibar  aloes,  and  nat-aloin  from  Natal  aloes. 
Cape  aloes,  it  was  supposed,  did  not  contain  a]oin,  but  a  closely 
analogous  body  to  which  its  cathartic  action  was  attributed. 
In  addition  to  aloin,  the  various  kinds  of  aloes  were  usually  cred- 
ited with  containing  a  small  quantity  of  volatile  oil,  and  about  60 
per  cent,  of  a  resinous  material. 
It  has  been  known  for  some  time  that  aloin  was  rather  a  complex 
compound,  and  that  when  distilled  with  zinc  dust  it  yielded  anthra- 
cene.38 It  is  to  the  researches  of  Tschirch,  Pedersen,  Oesterle,  Leger, 
Aweng  and  others  that  we  are  indebted  for  the  more  modern  views 
on  the  chemistry  of  aloes. 
E.  Leger  has  demonstrated  that  not  only  does  Cape  aloes  con- 
tain a  crystallizable  aloin,  but  that  this  aloin  is  isomeric  with  the 
physiologically  active  portion  of  the  aloin  found  in  Barbadoes, 
Curacao  or  Socotrine  aloes.  He  also  states  that  the  aloin  from 
Barbadoes  or  Curacao  aloes,  for  instance,  consists  of  two  distinct 
bases ;  one,  barb-aloin,  is  capable  of  being  decomposed  into  alo- 
emodin,  and  is  chemically  the  same  as  the  aloin  found  in  Cape  aloes. 
