^p^embef,1!^'}     Taraxacum  Root  and  Taraxacin.  465 
starch  test,  if  properly  applied.  It  can  easily  be  purchased  free 
from  adulteration,  but  not  necessarily  entirely  free  from  starch-bear- 
ing seeds. 
In  no  case  is  it  desirable  to  attempt  to  filter  any  of  these  muci- 
lages, the  Pharmacopceial  directions  to  this  effect  being,  in  my 
opinion,  objectionable. 
TARAXACUM  ROOT  AND  TARAXACIN. 
By  I,.  K.  Sayre. 
Presented  to  the  Amer.  Pharm.  Assoc.,  Denver  Meeting,  1895. 
As  a  continuation  of  the  investigation  mapped  out  for  myself  a 
few  years  ago  in  connection  with  taraxacum,  and  reported  upon  in 
1893  and  1894,  I  desire  at  this  time  to  present  the  results  of  fur- 
ther work  during  the  past  winter  in  the  same  direction.  It  may  be 
remembered  that  an  effort  has  been  made  to  determine  the  varia- 
tion in  the  root  at  different  seasons  of  the  year,  and  to  determine 
whether  the  valuable  constituents  are  to  any  great  extent  altered 
by  the  application  of  a  low  heat,  such  as  might  be  used  in  drying 
the  fresh  drug. 
During  the  past  year  an  effort  has  been  made  to  determine  the 
nature  and  characteristics  of  the  so-called  bitter  principle — taraxa- 
cin— and  to  this  end  my  investigations  have  been  chiefly  directed. 
The  first  difficulty  in  isolating  the  active  principle  lay  in  the  separa- 
tion of  it  from  the  extraneous  matter  with  which  it  is  always  con- 
taminated when  its  colorless  aqueous  solution  is  evaporated.  This 
extraneous  matter  was  referred  to  in  a  former  paper  {Proceedings  of 
A.  Ph.  A.,  1893,  p.  78),  when  it  was  stated  that  all  attempts  to 
obtain  the  bitter  principle  in  a  crystalline  form,  free  from  admixture 
of  brownish -red  extractive,  had  been  unsuccessful,  and  what  was 
reported  as  taraxacin  in  the  analysis  was  this  crude  bitter  principle 
containing  this  extractive. 
It  seemed  impossible  to  separate  the  small,  needle-like  crystals 
from  the  resin-like  globules  of  other  uncrystallizable  material  seen 
under  the  microscope,  and  whether  these  uncrystallizable,  amor- 
phous globules  of  extractive,  or  the  crystals,  were  actually  the 
bitter  principle,  it  was  almost  impossible  to  tell.  My  efforts  have 
been  directed  towards  this  particular  problem — how  to  obtain  the 
taraxacin  in  the  pure  state.    If  it  be  a  crystalline  body,  how  can 
