THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
FEBRUARY,  i8q2. 
ANALYSES  OF  SOME  INDIGENOUS  DRUGS. 
Contribution  from  the  Chemical  Laboratory  of  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy, 
No.  102. 
Louis  H.  Koch  examined  two  samples  of  Taraxacum  officinale, 
one  of  the  root  as  he  found  it  in  commerce,  the  other  of  the  root 
collected  by  himself  in  March,  at  Leetonia,  Ohio.  The  commercial 
sample  yielded  15-60  per  cent.,  and  the  other  5-20  per  cent,  of  inulin. 
The  former  was  also  submitted  to  a  proximate  analysis,  and,  while 
no  new  principles  were  obtained,  the  following  percentages  of  the 
compounds  already  known  to  exist  in  it,  besides  the  inulin,  may  be 
of  interest : 
Per  Cent. 
Moisture   7-95 
Ash   22*50 
Volatile  matter  at  no°   '02 
Fat   -44 
Wax  .  .    '09 
Caoutchouc                           •  •  *   10 
Resin  soluble  in  ether   '35 
Resin  insoluble  in  ether   '22 
Mucilage  ,  .  8*49 
Saccharose   108 
Glucose   -46 
Albuminoids   4*89 
The  taraxacin  was  separated  by  dissolving  the  alcoholic  extract 
in  water  and  agitating  with  chloroform.  The  amount  was  not 
determined. 
William  Pfeuffer  submitted  the  over-ground  portion  of  Balmony 
to  a  proximate  analysis  and  detected  the  presence  of  a  glucoside  ir 
(65) 
