SOME CONSTITUENTS OF THE POISON IVY PLANT
(RHUS TOXICODENDRON)

DISSERTATION

SUBMITTED TO THE BOARD OF UNIVERSITY STUDIES OF THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY IN CONFORMITY WITH THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

BY WILLIAM ANDERSON SYME

1906

1906
THE SUN JOB PRINTING OFFICE
BALTIMORE

CONTENTS.

Acknowledgments 4

Literature 5

Introduction 7

Work of Khittel 11

Work of Maisch 12

Work of Pfaff 13

Experimental 14

Gallic Acid 18

Fisetin 20

Rhamnose 23

The Poison 28

Potassium Permanganate as a Remedy for Rhus Poisoning 35

Summary 37

Biography 38

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

The author desires to avail himself of this opportunity to tender his thanks to those under whose guidance he has worked while a student at the Johns Hopkins University, namely to Professors Remsen, Morse, Jones, and Andrews, and to Doctors Acree and Tingle for instruction in lecture room and laboratory.

He is especially indebted to Dr. S. F. Acree, at whose suggestion this research work was undertaken, for counsel and assistance in its prosecution.

He would also thank Messrs. Parke, Davis and Co., of Detroit, Mich., for the preparation of the crude material used in this investigation, and the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C., for electrotypes of figures 17, 18, and 19 in Bulletin No. 20, Division of Botany.

LITERATURE.

Acides Gummiques, Garros (Dissertation) 1895.

American Chemical Journal.

American Journal of the Medical Sciences.

American Journal of Pharmacy.

Annalen der Chemie und der Pharmacie (Liebig).

Annales de Chimie et de Physique.

Berichte der deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft.

Biochemie der Pflanzen (Czapek) 1905.

Brooklyn Medical Journal.

Bulletin de la Société Chimique.

Bulletins 20 and 26 U. S. Department of Agriculture, Division of Botany.

Chemie der Zuckerarten, Von Lippmann, 1904.

Chemiker-Zeitung.

Comptes rendus.

Industries of Japan, J. J. Rein.

Journal of the Chemical Society.

Journal of Experimental Medicine.

Les Sucres, Maquenne, 1900.

Manual of Botany, 6th Edition, Gray.

Medical and Surgical Reporter.

New York Medical Record.

Proceedings of the American Pharmaceutical Association.

Treatise on Chemistry, Roscoe and Schorlemmer.

Über Mategerbstoff, Reuchlin (Dissertation) 1904.

SOME CONSTITUENTS OF THE POISON IVY PLANT.

(RHUS TOXICODENDRON)

INTRODUCTION.

Plants belonging to the natural order Anacardiaciæ (Cashew family or Sumach family) are found in all the temperate climates of the world and quite frequently in semi-tropical climates. Many of these plants play important parts in economic botany, yielding dye-stuffs, tanning material, wax, varnish, and drugs. Several species are poisonous. At least three poisonous species of the genus Rhus are found in the United States. These three are all common and well-known plants, but confusion frequently arises concerning them on account of the different names by which they are known in different localities. For example, poison ivy (Rhus toxicodendron or Rhus radicans) probably the best known poisonous plant in America, being found in all the States except those in the extreme West, is often confounded with and popularly called "poison oak." The true poison oak is the Rhus diversiloba of the Western States.[1] The third and most poisonous species of this plant is Rhus venenata or Rhus vernix; it is the Rhus vernicifera of Japan, from which Japanese lac is obtained. It is popularly known in the United States as "poison sumach," "poison dogwood" and "poison elder." It grows in swamps from Canada to Florida.

As the poison ivy is by far the most common of these plants in the Eastern States, a brief description of it is given here:[2] A shrub climbing by rootlets over rocks, etc., or ascending trees, or sometimes low and erect; leaflets 3, rhombic-ovate, mostly pointed, and rather downy beneath, variously notched, sinuate, or cut-lobed; high climbing plants (R. radicans) having usually more entire leaves. It is found in thickets, low grounds, etc. Greenish flowers appear in June.