SAMBUCUS (U. S. P.)—SAMBUCUS. Description and Chemical Composition

The U. S. P. recognizes the flowers only, giving the following description: “The flowers, when fresh, about 5 Mm. (⅕ inch) broad, and, after drying, shrivelled; calyx superior, minutely 5-toothed; corolla originally cream-colored, after drying pale brownish-yellow, wheel-shaped and 5-lobed, with 5 stamens on the short tube; odor peculiar; taste sweetish, somewhat aromatic and bitterish. The peduncles and pedicels of the inflorescence should be rejected”—(U. S. P.). The odor of the flowers is characteristic and heavy, quite powerful when fresh, but faint when dried; they are slightly aromatic and bitterish, and impart their virtues to hot water. Boiling dissipates a volatile oil, which may be obtained by distillation with water; when cold it has the consistence of butter. Mr. F. F. Lyons (Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1892, p. 1) found the bitterness of the flowers to be due to an amorphous, yellow, glucosidal substance, soluble in chloroform. The berries have little or no odor, an acid-saccharine taste, and yield by expression a purple juice, called elder-rob, which turns a dark-lilac color with alkalies, and a scarlet with acids; acetate of lead added to the juice causes a blue deposit of its coloring substance. It contains malic acid, some citric acid, and, according to J. B. Metzger (Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1881, p. 553), a dark-brown resin, fat, sugar, gum, tannin, etc. The inner bark is whitish, with a green tint, odorless, of a saccharine taste, but subsequently bitterish, with some acrimony, and imparts its properties to water or alcohol. Mr. Charles G. Traub (Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1881, p. 392) found the bark to contain valerianic acid, volatile oil, fat, resin, tannin, sugar, coloring matter, etc. Also see quantitative analysis, by C. Otto Moosbrugger (ibid., 1895, p. 520), who found tannin, starch, alkaloids, and glucosids to be absent.