Thompson & Taylor Co., Chicago, Ill. C. C. Sherman, North Branch, Mich. De Boe, King & Co., Grand Rapids, Mich. De Boe, King & Co., Grand Rapids, Mich. Acme Extract Co. (Foote & Jenks, Prop.), Jackson, Mich. Kenwood Preserving Co., Chicago, Ill. De Boe, King & Co., Grand Rapids, Mich. De Boe, King & Co., Grand Rapids, Mich. Phelps, Brace & Co., Detroit, Mich. Citizens' Wholesale Supply Co., Columbus, Ohio. The Bennett Chemical Co., Leroy, N. Y. M. M. Fenner, Fredonia, N. Y. Arlington Laboratory, Milwaukee, Wis. LEMON EXTRACT. The flavoring preparation that stands next in importance to vanilla extract is lemon extract. In a general way we may say that a lemon extract is a flavoring preparation from the lemon oil. According to the United States Pharmacopoeia* lemon extract consists of a solution of five per cent lemon oil in grain alcohol, together with color, flavoring properties and other extractive matters derived from the lemon peel. During the past few years considerable attention has been given to the subject of lemon extract in this State and perhaps a brief discussion of the forms of sophisitication, etc., common to this product will be of interest at this time. Use of Methyl, or Wood Alcohol: The expensive ingredient in the manufacture of lemon extract is the alcohol. The cost for the alcohol in a lemon extract made according to the formula of the United States Pharmacopoeia is a little over threefourths of the total cost of the extract. Manufacturers, therefore, seeking to reduce the cost of the manufacture of their product naturally attempt to reduce the cost of the expensive ingredient, namely, the alcohol. One of the methods employed for this purpose is the substitution of methyl, or wood, alcohol for the grain alcohol. A purified form of the wood alcohol is always used for this purpose, the product known as Columbian spirits being the one most generally employed. Columbian spirits, which is wood alcohol refined, costs $1.00 to $1.50 a gallon, while grain alcohol costs $2.50 to $3.00 a gallon. It has always been a recognized fact that wood alcohol is injurious to health and many instances are known where fatal results have followed its use. However, it was formerly the belief of many scientists that if the methyl alcohol could be obtained in its pure form, free from all impurities, it would be no more injurious than grain alcohol. Recent experiments, particularly those of Dr. Reid Hunt, have shown conclusively that the poisonous properties are not due to the impurities present, but is from the methyl alcohol itself; and to quote the last paragraph of Dr. Hunt's article, "These experiments on the physiological action of methyl alcohol and its fate in the body show' conclusively that, however pure the preparation may be, it is totally unfit for use as a substitute for grain alcohol in any preparation which is to be taken internally and especially in preparations which are to be taken for any length of time. This was the conclusion drawn by pharmacologists years ago from Pohl's work, and the sad results which have recently followed the consumption of preparations containing methyl alcohol show the danger of departing from recognized methods in pharmacy in the manufacture of compounds without full knowledge of the physiological action of the ingredients." Many investigators of this subject have gone much farther in their U. S. Pharmacopoeia, 1890, p. †Johns Hopkins' Hospital Bulletin, Vol. XIII, Nos. 137-138. |