574 
Mate  or  Paraguay  Tea. 
/Am. Jour.  Phann. 
\      Nov.,  1883. 
Lenoble,  who,  as  well  as  Dr.  Rochleder,  supposed  mate  to  be  produced  by 
Psoralea  glandulosa^  named  the  crystalline  active  principle  he  obtained 
from  it,  "psoralein." 
He  also  found  in  it  wax,  albumen  and  volatile  oil. 
According  to  Dr.  Byasson,  mate  contains  as  much  caffeine  as  the  best 
Chinese  tea.  The  variety  which  he  experimented  upon  was  ca^-guacu.  He 
found  also  a  viscid  substance  resembling  birdlime,  soluble  in  ether  ;  this  he 
considered  to  be  a  fatty  body  of  the  nature  of  a  compound  ether  whose  alco- 
hol was  allied  to  cholesterin. 
His  analysis  was  as  follows  : 
Robin  has  examined  several  different  kinds  of  mate.  The  amount  of 
cafleiue  in  young  leaves  dried  without  special  care  was  0*02  to  0'03  per  cent. 
Mate  prepared  by  the  Indians  and  containing  twigs  and  fragments  of 
fruit  yielded  0'16  per  cent  ,  and  mate  from  the  Mission  of  the  Province  of 
Corrientes,  0*14  per  cent.  The  peculiar  tannic  acid,  which  Dr.  Byasson  did 
not  find,  varies  between  1  per  cent,  and  1*6  per  cent.  The  ash  of  young 
leaves  varies  from  0"12  to  0"2. 
Professor  A.  W.  Hoffmann,  of  Berlin,  found  0'3  per  cent,  of  caffeine.  The  " 
average  of  the  published  analyses  indicates  about  \  per  cent,  of  caffeine,  that 
of  Indian  tea  being  2  per  cent.  The  value  of  mate,  as  in  the  case  of  tea, 
depends  not  merely  upon  the  caffeine  but  also  upon  the  tannin  and  aromatic 
principles.  He  considered  the  tannin  to  be  identical  in  every  respect  with 
that  found  in  tea. 
The  aromatic  principle  has  not  been  isolated,  but  by  dry  distillation  a 
volatile  oil  is  obtained,  which  belongs  to  the  phenol  group  and  is  soluble  in 
alcohol. 
In  1877  the  mate-tannic  acid  was  examined  by  Dr.  Pedro  N.  Arata,  who 
found  that  the  tannin  of  mate,  while  analogous  to  that  of  coffee,  was  not 
identical.  The  chief  differences  noticed  by  him  are  as  follows  :  Lime  water 
gives  with  the  coffee- tannic  acid  a  small  precipitate  soluble  in  excess,  but 
an  abundant  insoluble  precipitate  with  the  tannin  of  mate.  This,  how- 
ever, does  not  hold  good  with  all  samples  of  mate,  the  precipitate  being 
sometimes  soluble  in  an  excess  of  the  tannin.  Coffee-tannic  acid  gives  by 
dry  distillation  pyrocatechin,  while  the  tannin  of  mate  yields  in  addition 
to  pyrocatechin  the  isomeric  body  resorcin. 
Coffee-tannic  acid  is  soluble  in  52*84  vol.  of  alcohol,  while  mate-tannic 
acid  requires  73*66  vol. 
Dr.  Arata  considers  that  ceffee-tannic  acid  may  be  regarded  as  dioxypara- 
Caffeine  
Substance  resembling  birdlime,  fat  substance  and 
Grams. 
1*850 
coloring  matter . . 
Complex  glucoside 
Resin.,  
Mineral  matter  
Malic  acid  
3*870 
2*380 
0-630 
3*920 
Not  estimated. 
