262 
Sweet  Cassava. 
Am.  Jour.  Phaim. 
May,  1895. 
SWEET  CASSAVA. 
By  Harvey  W.  Wii,ey. 
(Abstracted    from    Bulletin    No.  44,  U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture, 
Division  of  Chemistry.) 
In  the  southern  peninsula  of  Florida,  and  growing  well  up  into 
the  frost  belt,  is  found  in  many  localities  a  cultivated  plant  known 
as  cassava,  or  sweet  cassava.  From  a  careful  study  of  the  climatic 
conditions  under  which  the  plant  flourishes,  it  is  safe  to  assume  that 
it  may  also  be  grown  with  success  in  southern  Alabama,  Mississippi, 
Louisiana  and  Texas.  Cassava  is  a  name  which  should  properly 
apply  only  to  the  purified  starch  derived  from  the  roots  of  the 
plant,  but  it  has  passed  into  general  use  to  designate  the  plant 
itself.  Botanically,  the  plant  is  known  as  Janipha  manihot,  Mani- 
hot utilissima,  Jatropha  manihot,  Manihot  ciipi,  Manihot  loeflingii, 
and  Manihot  palmata.  One  of  its  common  names  is  manioc 
plant. 
There  is  properly  only  one  variety  of  the  plant  growing  in 
Florida,  while  that  variety  which  grows  in  the  tropics  contains  so 
(  much  hydrocyanic  acid  as  to  render  it  poisonous^  The  variety 
grown  in  the  subtropical  region  of  Florida,  however,  contains  only 
a  small  quantity  of  hydrocyanic  acid,  and  is,  therefore,  commonly 
known  as  sweet  cassava.  It  is  quite  probable  that  after  the  tropical 
variety  has  grown  for  some  time  in  a  subtropical  climate,  it  would 
lose  largely  its  poisonous  properties. 
The  attention  of  the  Division  of  Chemistry  was  first  called  to  the 
cassava  plant  as  an  article  of  food  and  a  possible  source  of  starch, 
in  1888,  in  a  letter  received  from.  Mr.  R.  H.  Burr,  of  Bartow,  Fla., 
who  also  sent  a  package  of  the  roots.  These  roots  were  long, 
slender  and  of  various  sizes,  some  of  them  two  feet  long  and 
weighing  several  pounds.  The  analysis  of  the  substance,  exclusive 
of  the  bark,  calculated  to  dry  substance,  is  given  in  the  following 
table  : 
Per  Cent. 
Ash                                                                           .i  ,  .  .  1  "94 
Oil  (petroleum  ether  extract)   1-2j 
Kther  extract  (resins,  etc.)   074 
Alcohol  extract  (amides,  sugars,  glucosides,  etc.)   17 '43 
Crude  fibre   4*03 
Starch   71*85 
Albuminoids  (calculated  from  nitrogen)   3*47 
10073 
