What is the best sugar for pharmaceutical purposes? Describe odor, taste, chemical reaction, and solubility. How may the following impurities be detected?—viz.: Insoluble salts, foreign matters, ultramarine, Prussian blue, etc.; grape-sugar, and of more than a slight amount of inverted sugar. What is the specific gravity of rock-candy? What is the object of adding ultramarine to sugar? What change takes place when sugar in dilute solution is exposed to warm air? When cane-sugar is heated to 185° C. (365° F.), what change takes place, and what is formed? At a higher temperature, 204.4° to 215.5° C. (400° to 420° F.), what change takes place? At a still higher temperature what occurs? For what purposes in pharmacy is sugar used? What are saccharures? What are oleo-saccharures (elæosacchara)? Honey-Whence is it obtained? Describe odor, taste, chemical reaction, and solubility. How may the following impurities be detected ?—viz.: Chloride; sulphate; glucose or other foreign admixtures; starch. For what is honey used in pharmacy? In what form is it official? What is manna? What is its specific gravity? What is its solubility in water? In alcohol? What is the principal constituent of manna? What are the physical properties of mannite? What is its chemical composition, and to what class is it considered to belong? How may it be obtained? For what is manna used, and what is the dose? Liquorice root-What is the Latin official name? Whence obtained? What sweet principle does glycyrrhiza contain? What is its chemical composition, and in what combination does it exist in the root? To what does the root owe its acridity? What are the official preparations of glycyrrhiza? Ammoniated glycyrrhizin-What is the Latin official name? How is it made? What amount is obtained from glycyrrhiza? What effect do alkalies have upon glycyrrhizin? For what is this compound useful? What is triticum, and how is it found in commerce? What principles does triticum contain? For what is it used? What official preparation of triticum is there? CHAPTER LII DERIVATIVES OF SUGARS THROUGH THE ACTION OF FERMENTS. Fermentation. When certain organic bodies are subjected to the action of water, air, and a warm temperature, decomposition takes place. This is accompanied by the presence of microscopic organisms, and the result is the formation of new products. When decomposition is followed by the production of worthless or offensive substances, it is termed putrefaction; when useful products are formed, the process is called fermentation. Two prominent theories accounting for the phenomena of fermentation have been advanced,-one, in which the action is regarded as a chemical process, the presence of the microscopic bodies being considered unimportant; the other (which is now universally accepted) that fermentation is caused by the presence of the organisms. Ferments may be divided into two classes: 1. Organized or physiological ferments, as yeast, mycoderms, torulas, etc.; 2. Unorganized or soluble nitrogenous ferments, like diastase, synaptase, myrosin, etc. Fermentation which is produced by the latter class has been termed false fermentation, and the ferments themselves called cryptolytes. Vinous Fermentation.-Cane-sugar, as before stated, is capable of being decomposed by this process and converted into alcohol and carbon dioxide, but it will not undergo the vinous fermentation by itself. It requires to be dissolved in water, subjected to the influence of a ferment, and kept at a certain temperature. Accordingly, sugar, water, the presence of a ferment, and the maintenance of an adequate temperature must be deemed the prerequisites of the vinous fermentation. The water acts by giving fluidity, and the ferment and temperature by commencing and maintaining the chemical changes. The precise manner in which the ferment operates has not been positively determined; but the fermentative change seems to be intimately connected with the multiplication of a microscopic plant, Torula cerevisiae. Beginning with the simple substances cellulose and starch, it will be found that, through the action of dilute acids and ferments, they may be converted into alcohol or acetic acid: And if the action is not arrested, the acetous fermentation begins, resulting in the conversion of the alcohol into acetic acid through oxidation: The most important derivative of sugar through the action of a ferment is alcohol: this is usually obtained from whisky by distillation. The distilled product of vinous liquors forms the different ardent spirits of commerce. When obtained from wine, it is called brandy; from fermented molasses, rum; from cider, malted barley, or rye, whiskey; from malted barley and rye-meal with hops, and rectified from juniper berries, Holland gin; from malted barley, rye, or potatoes, and rectified from turpentine, common gin; and from fermented rice, arrack. These spirits are of different strengths,—that is, contain different proportions of alcohol,—and have various peculiarities by which they are distinguished by the taste. The compounds derived from sugars will be considered under the following subheads: 1. Ethyl hydrate and oxide and their preparations. 2. Preparations of the compound ethers of the ethyl and amyl series. 3. Aldehyd, its derivatives and preparations. Ethyl Hydrate and Oxide and their Preparations. The compounds containing the radical ethyl are the most important of those derived from organic substances, alcohol being the source of all. Alcohol is regarded chemically as the type of a class of carbon compounds called alcohols, of which there are many important members. They are the hydrates of the alcohol radicals (ethyl hydrate, alcohol; amyl hydrate, amylic alcohol), just as slaked lime, or calcium hydrate, is the hydrate of the metal calcium. Ethers are the oxides of these radicals, just as lime, or calcium oxide, is the oxide of the metal calcium. Compound ethers are analogous to the salts of the metals, being formed by the decomposition of their alcohols by acids,―i.e., ethyl nitrite, ethyl acetate, amyl nitrite, just as potassium nitrate, sodium acetate, and calcium sulphate may be produced by decomposing the hydrates of their respective metals with acids. In each case water is formed as one of the results of the decomposition. This may be shown by the reactions C2H2HO + C2HO2 = C,H,C,H,O, + H,O. Ethyl Acetate. Water. An alcoholic liquid, obtained by the distillation of the mash of fermented grain (usually of mixtures of corn, wheat, and rye), and at least two years old. Owing to the immense production of grain in this country, the cheapest sources of starch (corn, wheat, and rye) are used in making alcoholic liquids. The operations by which whiskey is obtained from grain are technically termed,-1. Mashing, by which the starch is converted into sugar. 2. Fermentation, or the production of the alcohol. 3. Distillation, or the separation of the crude spirit. The crushed grain, mixed with malt, is added to water at 15.4° C. (60° F.), and allowed to stand, to permit the conversion of the starch into maltose, through the action of the diastase. The liquid is now termed the wort. This is caused to ferment by the addition of yeast, and alcohol is gradually formed, carbon dioxide escaping: the liquor is then distilled, the distillate being termed low wines. This is again distilled, and raw whiskey is the product. This upon keeping, especially in a warm room, improves in quality through the formation of compound ethers, which are supposed to communicate an agreeable flavor to the liquid. TESTS FOR IMPURITIES. To render 100 C.c. of Whiskey distinctly alkaline to litmus should not require more than 1.2 C.c. of potassium hydrate V.S. If 100 C.c. of Whiskey be very slowly evaporated in a tared capsule on a water-bath, the last portions volatilized should not have a harsh or disagreeable odor, And the residue, when dried at 100° C. (212° F.), should not weigh more than 0.25 Gm. This residue should have no sweet or distinctly spicy taste. It should almost completely dissolve in 10 C.c. of cold water, forming a solution which is colored not deeper than light green by a few drops of dilute ferric chloride T.S., made by mixing the latter with 10 volumes of water. Uses.-Crude whiskey is used as the source of alcohol. When purified and mellowed by age, it is used as a stimulant. ALCOHOL. U. S. Alcohol. A liquid composed of about 91 per cent., by weight, or 94 per cent., by volume, of Ethyl Alcohol [C2H2OH = 45.9], and about 9 per cent., by weight, of Water. ALCOHOL ABSOLUTUM. U. S. Absolute Alcohol. C2H2OH=45.9. Ethyl Alcohol, containing not more than 1 per cent., by weight, of Water. Absolute Alcohol should be kept in well-stoppered bottles or tin cans, in a cool place, remote from lights or fire. ALCOHOL DEODORATUM. Deodorized Alcohol. A liquid composed of about 92.5 per cent., by weight, or 95.1 per cent., by volume, of Ethyl Alcohol [C2H2OH = 45.9], and about 7.5 per cent., by weight, of Water. Preparation. The natural sources of alcohol are starch and sugar as they exist in various plants, and alcohol, if pure, is the same from whatever source it is derived. It is generally made by distilling whiskey, and redistilling and rectifying the distillate in an apparatus termed an alcohol column and still. The yield of alcohol, sp. gr. .835, obtained from good whiskey is about 58 per cent. by volume. The principal impurity is fusel oil, or amylic alcohol. Alcohol may be deprived of odor by treating it with potassium permanganate and redistilling. Absolute alcohol is the name given to the strongest alcohol which can be made, and which is intended to be absolutely free from water. This is a difficult preparation to make, owing to the very strong affinity existing between the two liquids. The strongest alcohol that can be made by simple distillation contains 11 per cent. of water, and in order to separate the latter from it, it is necessary to use some substance having a still stronger affinity for water. This is found in recently-burned lime, and the method employed is to percolate the strongest and purest alcohol attainable through the lime, out of contact with air, and then to redistil the percolate in vacuo. In this way alcohol may be obtained having a sp. gr. as low as 0.79355 at 15.6° C. (60° F.). (Squibb.) Absolute alcohol is a colorless, volatile liquid, of an agreeable odor and a burning taste. It boils at 78.4° C. (173.1° F.), and is not congealed by a cold of 202° F. below zero. Its freedom from water may be ascertained by dropping into it a piece of anhydrous baryta, which will remain unchanged if the alcohol be free from water, but otherwise will fall to powder; or (a more delicate test) by its forming a clear solution when mixed with an equal bulk of pure benzol. Absolute alcohol should be free from fusel oil. A transparent, colorless, Fixed Impurities, or odor, and a burning Fusel Oil, or other C. (172.4° F.), and is readily inflammable, giving a blue flame without smoke. It should not change the color of blue or red litmus paper previously moistened with water. Miscible with water in all proportions, and without any trace of cloudiness; also miscible with ether or chloroform. Amylic Alcohol, Or- Methyl Alcohol, Al- TESTS FOR IMPURITIES. If 50 C.c. of Alcohol be evaporated to dryness On allowing Alcohol, mixed with one-third of |