A  n.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
January,  1898.  / 
Extracts  of  Licorice. 
23 
of  solubility  clearly  indicates  a  great  similarity  in  the  products.  It 
would  appear  from  the  results  which  the  author  has  obtained  that 
acetone  might  economically  and  conveniently  replace  alcohol  in  the 
preparation  of  the  three  previously  named  resins. 
AN  EXAMINATION  OF  SOME  COMMERCIAL  POWDERED 
EXTRACTS  OF  LICORICE. 
By  Calvin  O.  Kinzey. 
Contribution  from  the  Chemical  Laboratory  of  the  Philadelphia  College  of 
Pharmacy.    No.  173. 
The  fact  is  well  known  that  the  powdered  extract  of  licorice 
offered  for  sale  in  our  markets  is  adulterated  with  such  materials  as 
starch,  pea  meal,  sugar,  etc.,  to  a  very  large  extent,  and  the  extract 
can  be  readily  adulterated  with  these  materials  without  causing  any 
very  perceptible  change  in  its  appearance.  It  is  evident  that  the 
evils  arising  from  a  practice  like  this  will  have  a  very  bad  effect  on 
the  market,  and  cause  no  small  amount  of  loss  and  annoyance  to 
purchasers. 
While  the  value  of  extract  of  licorice  depends  altogether  upon  the 
amount  of  glycyrrhizin  present,  there  seems  to  have  been  no  effort 
made  to  establish  a  standard  amount  of  this  principle  required  in  a 
good  extract ;  furthermore,  very  little  seems  to  have  been  written 
on  the  methods  of  assaying  the  extract  of  licorice  for  glycyrrhizin  ; 
and  what  has  been  written  is  rather  vague  regarding  the  solvent  em- 
ployed for  dissolving  the  glycyrrhizin  from  the  extract,  and  the  de- 
tails of  reprecipitating  the  glycyrrhizin. 
The  author  has  lately  had  several  brands  of  commercial  powdered 
extract  of  licorice  to  estimate  for  glycyrrhizin,  and  he  found  himself 
confronted  with  the  state  of  affairs  already  mentioned.  Therefore, 
to  estimate  the  samples,  it  became  necessary  to  make  some  prelimi- 
nary experiments,  in  order  to  devise  a  method  that  would  afford! 
comparative  results. 
The  method  which  is  ordinarily  used  in  the  estimation  of  gly- 
cyrrhizin is  to  exhaust  the  extract  with  either  boiling  water,  cold 
water  made  alkaline  with  ammonia  water,  or  with  a  cold  mixture 
of  water  and  alcohol,  made  alkaline  with  ammonia  water.  The  in- 
soluble matter  is  then  filtered  off,  and  the  clear  filtrate,  containing  the 
glycyrrhizin,  is  precipitated  by  making  it  acid,  usually  with  dilute 
sulphuric  acid. 
