Am.  jour  Pharm. >  Studies  on  Licorice  Root. 
July,  1921.  ) 
491 
3.  Treatment  with  cold  95  per  cent,  alcohol,  followed  by  75  per 
cent,  alcohol. 
4.  Treatment  with  cold  absolute  alcohol,  followed  by  75  per 
cent,  alcohol. 
A  new  series  of  determinations  was  now  made  in  order  that  the 
four  methods  could  be  compared  simultaneously. 
The  Russian  root  in  this  series  was  a  new  sample,  and  there- 
fore the  results  on  this  one  sample  are  not  to  be  compared  with  the 
earlier  series. 
Instead  of  the  tedious  method  of  percolating  the  powdered  roots 
with  ether,  95.  per  cent,  alcohol  and  absolute  alcohol,  extractions  were 
made  with  these  solvents  in  centrifuge  tubes.  The  procedure  was  to 
stir  up  3  grams  of  the  ground  root  with  ^5  cc.  of  the  solvent  for  15 
minutes,  centrifuge,  pour  off  the  clear  liquor  completely,  and  repeat 
with  two  more  75  cc.  portions,  stirring  each  time  for  15  minutes  be- 
fore centrifugirig.  This  method  gives  a  bright  liquor,  which  can  be 
poured  off  from  the  root  to  the  last  drop.  The  amounts  of  extracts 
obtained  agreed  excellently  with  those  from  the  slow  percolation 
method,  and  the  extraction  is  finished  in  little  more  than  an  hour, 
the  last  liquor  being  practically  colorless. 
Series  4. 
comparison  of  four  methods. 
Spanish. 
Greek. 
Russian. 
Anatolian. 
.    2.0  2.3 
2.4 
3-2 
3-2 
2.1 
2.5 
Cold  Absolute  Alcohol  Extract  . 
5-5 
5.o 
6.5 
7.2 
4-7 
6-7 
Cold  95%  Alcohol  Extract   
.  8.9 
7-8 
12.0 
11.7 
10.3 
10.0 
.  11.5  11.2 
11.0  10.7 
12.6 
13.2 
14.7 
14.8 
Glycyrrhizin  after  Ether   
.  10.4  10.4 
10. 1 
10.2 
10.6 
13.8 
14.1 
Glycyrrhizin  after  Abs.  Alcohol  . 
9-0 
8.9 
9.6 
9-8 
12.9 
II. I 
Glycyrrhizin  after  95%  Alcohol  . . 
.  8.4 
8.2 
8.0 
8.8 
12. 1 
9.8 
After  extracting  the  various  roots  with  ether,  95  per  cent,  alco- 
hol or  absolute  alcohol,  and  then  treating  the  residual  roots  in  the 
tubes  three  times  with  75  per  cent,  alcohol,  the  residues  were  ex- 
tracted with  a  hot  5  per  cent,  solution  of  ammonia  to  determine 
whether  all  of  the  glycyrrhizin  was  removed. 
The  treatment  with  hot  weak  ammonia  extracts  starch  and  gums, 
but  the  solutions  were  found  to  contain  no  glycyrrhizin. 
One  notices  very  clearly  that  the  more  material  removed  by  the 
preliminary  extraction,  the  lower  the  value  for  glycyrrhizin  subse- 
quently obtained. 
