Am.  Jour.  Pharm.) 
August,  1898.  J 
Note  on  Saffron. 
387 
in  the  cells  of  the  plant.  The  inference  was  that  a  barium  salt  was 
first  employed,  and  that  afterward  a  soluble  sulphate  was  used,  so 
that  the  insoluble  barium  was  precipitated  and  crystallized  in  the 
tissues. 
It  has  been  kept  in  damp  cellarsls  in  order  to  increase  the  amount 
of  water  in  the  drug.  The  coloring  principle  has  been  removed 
from  the  saffron,  and  the  exhausted  drug  artificially  colored.22  The 
amount  of  ash  found  in  commercial  saffron  has  been  25  to  30 
per  cent.  (Hart)  ;5  26  per  cent.  (Adrian)6;  36  per  cent.  (P.  J.  Trans., 
1897,  p.  223,  257),  and  527  per  cent.  (Beringer).7 
This  sums  up  probably  very  briefly  the  extent  of  the  ingenuity 
that  has  been  employed  to  dishonestly  make  money  out  of  the  sale 
of  the  drug.  But  it  cannot  be  said  that  the  drug  on  the  American 
market  is  so  extensively  adulterated  as  the  literature  would  seem  to 
indicate.  The  extended  use  of  the  microscope  and  of  chemical 
reagents,  probably  as  much  as  anything  else,  has  made  it  pos- 
sible that  this,  as  many  other  drugs,  is  not  so  liable  to  adultera- 
tion. 
Under  the  name  of  saffron  can  be  purchased  in  this  country 
chiefly  but  two  products,  the  one  being  the  stigmas  with  some 
styles  and  also  fragments  of  anthers  and  perianth  of  Crocus  sativus, 
L.,  and  the  other  the  tubular  and  perfect  flowers  of  Carthamas  tine- 
tortus,  L.  The  difference  in  price  between  the  two  being  as 
1:40  or  1:42,  there  is  in  some  localities  a  tendency  to  sub- 
stitute the  one  for  the  other.  This  substitution  appears  in  very 
many  cases  to  result  from  ignorance.  In  no  case  where  crocus  has 
been  purchased  or  otherwise  secured  has  there  been  found  any 
flagrant  case  of  adulteration.  The  saffron  on  the  market  appears 
to  be  either  Alicante,  containing  more  styles,  stamens  and  fragments 
of  corolla,  or  Valencia,  consisting  almost  entirely  of  stigmas.  There 
is  also  the  American  saffron,  the  product  of  Carthamns  tinctorius. 
There  appears  to  be  but  little  tendency  in  this  country  to  adul- 
terate saffron  with  any  of  the  mineral  substances.  The  statement  made 
by  the  Ber.  d.  D.  Pharm.  Gcs.,  1898,  p.  27,  that  some  thousands  of 
kilogrammes  of  flowers  of  calendula  are  shipped  from  China  to 
America,  and  that  they  are  not  used  as  dyestuff,  but  employed 
in  medicine,  is  worthy  some  attention.  It  is  possible  that  this 
form  of  adulteration  is  still  practised  in  some  sections  of  this 
country — the  calendula  being  either  colored  and  used  per  sc  or 
