552 
Fruit  of  Co  cos  Nucifera. 
/Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
(.  Xovember,  1901. 
III.    THE    DETECTION    OF    POWDERED    COCOANUT  SHELLS  IN  GROUND 
SPICES. 
The  adulteration  of  ground  spices  with  powdered  cocoanut  shells 
was  brought  to  notice  in  1885  by  W.  H.  Ellis,1  public  analyst, 
Toronto,  Canada,  and  has  since  been  frequently  detected  by  A. 
McGill2  of  Ottawa  and  food  analysts  in  different  parts  of  the 
United  States. 
The  extent  to  which  this  fraud  is  practiced  is  indicated  by  the 
following  summary  of  results  obtained  by  the  writer  during  the 
years  1896-7  in  the  examination  of  samples  collected  in  the  State 
of  Connecticut. 
Black 
pepper.         Cloves.  Allspice. 
Samples  examined  147  37  24 
Samples  adulterated  (total)  47  17  11 
Samples  adulterated  with  ground  cocoanut  shells,  21  7  6 
It  is  stated  on  credible  authority  that  in  Philadelphia  at  the  pres- 
ent time  about  six  hundred  tons  of  shells,  obtained  as  a  by-pro- 
duct in  the  preparation  of  dessicated  cocoanut — an  article  much 
used  in  pastries  and  confectionery — are  annually  reduced  to  a 
powder  in  mills  of  peculiar  construction  and  sold  to  spice  grinders. 
This  powder,  without  further  treatment,  is  mixed  with  ground 
allspice,  which  it  closely  resembles  in  appearance.  By  cautious 
roasting  the  color  of  ground  cloves  and  nutmegs  is  matched,  and 
by  roasting  at  a  higher  temperature  a  charcoal  is  obtained  which, 
mixed  with  starchy  matter,  is  a  clever  imitation  of  black  pepper. 
Powdered  cocoanut  shells  appears  to  be  a  distinctively  American 
adulterant.  The  leading  treatises  on  the  microscopy  of  foods  in 
the  German,  French  and  English  languages,  even  those  of  recent 
publication,  make  no  mention  of  it,  and  a  number  of  prominent 
European  food  chemists  and  microscopists  have  declared  to  the 
writer  that  they  had  never  heard  of  its  use.  On  the  other  hand, 
cocoanut  cake  (the  residue  from  the  oil  presses),  which  in  Europe  is 
commonly  employed,  both  as  a  cattle  food  and  as  an  adulterant  of 
human  foods,  is  almost  unknown  in  America. 
All  the  tissue  elements  of  the  mesocarp,  the  endocarp  and  the 
1  Dept.  Inland  Revenue,  Rep.  on  Adult,  of  Food  for  1885,  Ottawa,  1886,  pp. 
67,  79- 
2 Laboratory  of  the  Inland  Rev.  Dept.,  Bull.  No.  20,  1890,  pp.  7-1 1. 
