428 
Cotton  Root  Bark. 
/Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I  September,  1898. 
twenty  physicians,  and  also  the  overseers  of  some  large  plantations, 
as  to  their  having  heard  of  this  use,  but  found  nothing  to  corrobor- 
ate the  statement. 
The  bark  was  examined  chemically  by  Professor  Wayne  (Amer. 
Jour.  Pharm.,  1872,  p.  289),  W.  C.  Stahle  {Ibid.,  1875,  P-  457)  and 
C.  P.  Drueding  {Ibid.,  1877,  p.  386). 
Both  Wayne  and  Stahle  confined  themselves  principally  to  the 
investigation  of  the  resin.  Wayne  found  a  yellow  resin,  turning  red 
on  exposure,  which  he  considered  insoluble  in  chloroform,  ether, 
benzol  and  aqua  ammonia,  but  found  it  soluble  in  alcohol. 
Stahle  obtained  a  resin  under  several  different  conditions  which  was 
invariably  of  a  red  color,  and  the  solubility  he  found  to  be  as  fol- 
lows: In  alcohol,  14  parts;  in  ether,  25  parts;  in  chloroform,  15 
parts;  in  benzol,  122  parts.  The  difference  in  the  color  of  the 
resin  found  by  the  two  investigators  appears  to  be  due  to  the  fact 
that  Professor  Wayne  used  fresh  bark,  while  Mr.  Stahle  used  a 
dried  product.  It  is  well  known  that  the  fresh  bark  contains  a  sub- 
stance which  is  yellow,  and  which,  on  exposure  to  light  and  air, 
becomes  red. 
Mr.  Drueding  found  the  constituents  of  the  bark  to  be :  Of 
inorganic  substances  K,  Na,  Ca,  Mn,  Fe,  H2S04  and  H3P04 ;  of 
organic:  red  and  yellow  resin,  resinous  coloring  matter,  fixed  oil, 
gum,  sugar,  tannin  and  chlorophyl.    About  1  ounce  of  fixed  oil 
was  obtained  from  5  pounds  of  root. 
The  material  used  in  this  investigation  was  fresh  and  gathered 
during  the  winter  months.  The  dried  bark  is  from  2  to  4  lines  in 
thickness  (when  fresh  from  2  to  4  mm.),  with  very  thin  cork,  which 
is  easily  removable.  The  color,  when  fresh,  is  yellow,  and,  after  ex- 
posure to  the  air  and  light,  changes  to  a  reddish-brown.  The  outer  sur 
face  is  reticulately  wrinkled,  possesses  numerous  small,  round,  black 
dots  of  a  fungus  or  lichen ;  occasionally  round  scars  and  transverse 
warts  appear  which  are  fissured  in  the  middle  along  their  whole 
length  (being  lenticels).  The  inner  surface  is  yellowish-white,  reticu- 
late and  shining,  the  bast  being  easily  separable  from  the  rest  ot 
the  bark  in  thin,  transparent,  porous,  reticulately-marked  plates. 
After  peeling  off  the  bast  the  inner  bark  is  whiter  in  appearance 
and  contains  numerous  small,  round  dots. 
The  bark  {Figs.  1  and  2)  consists  of  from  8  to  12  layers  of  tabu- 
lar, tangentially-elongated    cork  cells  (c),  generally  very  much 
