A study of the comparative pharmaceutical value of Sterculia gum

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A STUDY OF THE COMPARATIVE PHARMACEUTICAL VALUE OF STERCULXA GUM

A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the College of Pharmacy The University of Southern California

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science

by Catherine E. Kirchner June 1942

UMI Number: EP63456

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This thesis, written by

CATHERINE BURNS KIRCHNER under the direction of hP.T.. F a c u lt y Co mm itt ee , a n d a p p r o v e d by a l l its m e m b e r s , has been presented to and accepted by the Co unc il on G raduate Study and Research in p a r t i a l f u l f i l l ­ m e n t o f the r e q u i r e m e n t s f o r the de g re e o f

MASTER OF SCIENCE

D ean

Secretary D a te

J.una.,-19.42.

F a c u lty C om m ittee

xairman

jjr

PREFACE Considering the few gums of recognized pharmaceutical and commercial value, and the present conditions of importation of the two chief gums, that is, Acacia coming from Africa or India and the Tragacanth from Western Asia, the need of a gum that could be grown in the United States seemed apparent.

Having observed

a gum exuding from a local ornamental tree, the properties were investigated by pharmaceutical experimentation. The botanical origin, history and phar~ maceutical application are hereby presented♦

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER

PAG-E

I. HISTORY...................................

1

II. BOTANICAL ORIGIN..........................

5

III. PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF STERCULIA G U M ........

8

Viscosity and surface tension.............

8

IV. CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF STERCULIA GUMWITH AN EXPLANATION OF TESTS USED................

20

General tests for g u m s ..................

20

Iodine test for starch..................

20

Total ash in Sterculia G u m ...............

21

Acid-insoluble ash in Sterculia Gum........

21

Acid content............................

21

Heavy metals test........................

22

Osazone reaction ........................

22

V. COMPARISON OF STERCULIA GUM

WITH OTHER GUMS. .

VI. THE PHASE OF STERCULIA GUM IN EMULSIONS. . . . Nomenclature of Sterculia

Gum emulsions. . .

26 30 30

Determination of phases of emulsion of mineral oil and Sterculia Gum...........

31

VII. PHARMACEUTICAL USES FOR STERCULIA GUM........

33

Sterculia Gum as a binder for granulations .

33

Emulsions using Sterculia Gum..........

.

34

Lubricants and Sterculia G u m .............

35

iv

CHAPTER

PAGE

Ilair waving fluidsusing Sleroulia Gum. . •

36

Hand lotions....................

36

SLMrlARY AND C O N C L U S I O N S ......................

38

BIBLIOGRAPHY...................................

39

VIII.

ILLUSTRATIONS

ILLUSTRATION

PAGE

1* Sterculia Diversifolia .....................

2

2* Sterculia Fruit and Exudations .............

3

3* Saybolt Viscosimeter Graph.................

12

4* Mac Michael Viscosimeter Graphs.............

13

5, Christian-Becker Tensiometer Graph ..........

19

6• Osazone Crystals ..........................

24

LIST OF TABLES TABLE I* II.

PAGE Gums as Emulsifiers of Liquid Petrolatum

.•

38

•

28

Gums as Emulsifiers of Creosote Carbonate.

III.

Gums asSuspending Agents...................

29

IV.

Gums as Lubricating Jellies.................

29

CHAPTER I HISTORY Gums are exudations from the stems of many trees and shrubs, derived from the breaking down of the walls of cel­ lular tissue.

In chemical nature they are carbohydrates

which resemble cellulose or true cell-wall substance.

In

the dry condition they are hard and translucent but when wet they swell or dissolve and with sufficient water form mucilages. Sterculia is derived from Sterculias of Roman Mythol­ ogy, from Sterus, manure; applied to these plants because of odor of the leaves and fruits of some species.^ Sterculiacese family of trees can be grown in the greenhouse, and also outdoors, especially in the south. There are about one thousand species in the family and they are natives of warmer regions of the world, most abundant in Asia and Australia.

Sterculias have various foliage, the

leaves of different species being simple, palmately loved or digitate.

The flowers are mostly in panicles of large clus­

ters, often very attractive in colors varying from greenish to dull red and scarlet.

The species are grown mostly for

street and lawn trees; pictures of these appear on pages 2 and 3.

z Ctcreulia Plveraifolia

This 1$ one or the oldest Steroulia trees In Setttera Oallforala* «7 ' ••'', 1

C -~

seventy years#

The age is eetia&ted by botanists to he ■•

- : * -•

:'

^

'hr -•■■-■■' ^ *•' " ■

■...

The elroumferenoe it twelve feet, and the

approximate height Is one hundred Teet*

The tree Is located

at Orange Avenue and Orange Grove Avenue in Pasadena*

3

Sterculia Fruit and Exudations

The kinds that are generally known in this country are: Sterculia plantifolia, Sterculia diversifolia, and Sterculia acrifolia.

The latter two are most commonly

known in California as Draohychitons. grown from seeds.

All are easily

CHAPTER II

BOTANICAL ORIGIN The Sterculia tree used for its gum constituent has the following scientific botanical source accepted by bot­ anists. Sterculiaceae. Sterculia Family. Trees, shrubs and herbs, or sometimes vines, of about 50 genera and 750 species, nearly all trop., one furnishing cocoa and chocolate, another the colanut, and several grown for ornament. Lvs. alternate, simple or digitate, the stipules mostly deciduous; fls. bisex­ ual or unisexual, usually regular, clustered or rarely solitary; calyx deeply 5-cleft, valvate; petals 5 or 6 hypogynous; stamens 5 or more, in 2 whorls, those opposite the sepals staminodia or lacking, those opposite petals anther-bearing and more or less connate into a tube; ovaru superior, usually 5-celled with 2 or more ovules in each cell (sometimes 3-10 celled}; styles 2-5, dis­ tinct or united: fr. dry, usually dehiscent. Fls. unisexual or polygamous; petals 0 Another crowded without order Fr. Woody, not dehiscing until ripe 1 Brachychiton 1 BRACHYCKITON, Schott and Endl. About 11 species of Australian trees, grown for ornament in warm climates. Fls. unisexual or polygamous, in panicles or rarely racemes, mostly axillary; calyx usually campanulate; petals O; stamens united into column which bears a head of 10-15 sessile anthers; ovary with 5 cells each 2- to many-ovuled, the style united under the peltate of lobed stigma; fr. a woody follicle, not de­ hiscing until ripe; seeds and inside of fr. usually hairy, often cohering; radicle next the hilum. (Brachychi-ton: from Greek, referring to the short imbricated hairs and scales.)

6

Fls, bright scarlet 1. B, acerifolium Fls, Yellowish-white, sometimes spotted with red 2. B. populneum 2, B, populneum, R. Br. (Sterculia diversifolia, Don.) Tree to 60 ft., glabrous except the fls,: lvs. various, ovate to ovate-lanceolate and entire or more or less deeply 3- or 5-lobed, long-petioled, acuminate, glabrous and shining: fls, yellowishwhite, often dark-spotted, reddish and glabrous in­ side, tomentose outside when young; ovary slightly tomentose: fr. J-3 in, long, glabrous, on stalks 1-2 in, long. Queensland to Victoria.1 Sterculiaceae. Sterculia Family. 1, Fremontia Torr"! (Named in honor of John C. Fremont, a dis­ tinguished explorer of western North America.) One species end one variety, native to California and northern Mexico. 2. Sterculia L. Bottle Tree (from the Latin stercus, manure, in reference to the odor of the leaves and fruits of some species.) Deciduous or evergreen trees. Leaves simple, alter­ nate, petioled; the blades variously lobed or palmately divided. Flowers without petals, the sepals often petal-like, greenish to dull red and scarlet, some very large, in axillary panicles. Fruit com­ posed of 4 or 5 woody or leaflike carpels becoming follicles. About 100 species, native in semitropical regions. Key to the Species Leaves 2 to 3 inches long, entire or 3- or rarely 5-lobed . . . 1, S. diversifolia. 1. Sterculia diversifolia Don. BLACK JURRAJONG. Brachychiton populneum R. Br. B. diversif olium R. Br. A medium sized ever­ green tree, 25 to 60 ft, high. Leaf-blades ovate to ovate-lanceolate, l£ to 3 inches long, 1 to 1% inches wide, glabrous and glossy, entire or irreg­ ularly 3- or 5-lobed; petioles 3/4 inch to 2 inches long. Flowers bell-shaped, yellowish white, often reddish-tinged inside, borne in panicles. Follicles ovoid, l| to 3 inches long. Native to Australia. Planted as a street and park tree. Most frequently used in southern California.2

Indian gum, occasionally termed Karaya or Kadaya gum, is yielded by Cochlospermum gossypium, a member of the Bixaceaefamily, growing in India and adjacent coun­ tries.

This gum, although of an entirely different

botanical source, has often been confused with Sterculia

CHAPTER III

PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF STERCULIA GUM The gum is soft, smooth, and jelly-like when it comes out of the tree, having a translucent appearance. It is sweet tasting and upon drying it becomes white, dry, brittle and semitransparent.

This gum absorbs water quite

readily and forms a mucilage of greater consistency than gelatin.

It makes a smooth, clear jelly.

When powdered,

it has a whiter, finer texture than acacia.

Sterculia

Gum is suitable for emulsions, jellies, hand lotions, and suspensions and many other commercial and pharma­ ceutical uses* Mucilages are more stable if prepared without heat* A temperature above 50 to 55° C. impairs the viscosity. Mucilages should be made from the natural gum rather than a prepared or powdered form; as the heat generated during powdering causes a loss in viscosity by as much as 20 per cent when made into a mucilage.4 Viscosity and surface tension. When pure oil and water are shaken together, the initial dispersion of oil is quite unstable, the oil rapidly coalescing until a complete separation into a layer of oil and water results. By the process of coalescence this free surface energy

again attains its minimum value.

Free surface energy is

dependent upon both surface area (capacity factor) and interfacial tension (intensity factor).

The former cannot

do other than increase when the surface area is increased during dispersion.

Therefore, if a stable emulsion is to

be produced, there must be present some third substance termed the emulsifying or stabilizing agent, such as Sterculia Gum, which in some manner or other can prevent the coalescence of the oil globules#

The mechanism whereby

this coalescence is prevented is explained in several ways by numerous theories which have been advanced in the exten­ sive emulsion literature.4 The viscosity theory of emulsions attempts to ex­ plain the stabilization of an emulsion by reason of the hindrance offered the oil globules in coalescence.

There

is no correlation, however, between high viscosity and ability to form or stabilize an emulsion.

It has been

found that a solution containing 50 per cent glycerin and 6 per cent acacia and possessing high viscosity would not emulsify cottonseed oil, whereas a 1 per cent soap solu­ tion with a low viscosity did so quite effectively.

The

present view concerning the role of viscosity in emulsification is that it aids emulsification by its mechanical hindrance to coalescence but that it is not the cause of emulsification.

10

The surface tension theory considers that emulsifi­ cation is made possible by means of a lowering in the interfacial tension between the two phases* Viscosity is a term used to denote the relative de­ gree of fluidity of a liquid*

Scientifically, viscosity

may be defined as the force which will move a unit area of plane surface, with unit speed relative to another parallel plane surface, from which it is separated by a layer of the liquid of unit thickness#

The viscosity of a liquid varies

with the temperature, the higher the temperature the lower the viscosity and vice versa.

Dehydrating agents such as

alcohol decrease the viscosity as the alcohol concentra­ tion approaches the point at which the hydration of the alcohol becomes appreciable* With the Saybolt Universal Viscosimeter, results are expressed as the time of discharge, in seconds, of the liquid being tested.

In the United States, the Saybolt

Universal Viscosimeter is generally used for the determi­ nation of viscosity of lubricating oils.

This instrument,

in brief, consists of a metallic cylinder to contain the liquid under examination and having an outlet in the bottle closed with a cork stopper.

It is surrounded with a jacket

which serves as a bath to heat the liquid under examination to the specified temperature, the jacket being provided

11

with facilities for stirring and heating the bath.

Thermo­

meters, a flask graduated at GO cc., and a stup watch accompany the apparatus. Using this apparatus and noting time and temperature, the relative viscosity is measured by the rate of flow. (See graph, page 12.) Similar experiments were conducted on natural and synthetic gums using the Mac Michael Viscosimeter (Graphs on pages 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17).

The Mac Michael records

the angular torque of standard wires.

The torque is the

measure of the force needed to cause the two surfaces to move past each other at a velocity of 1 cm./sec*

Structural

viscosity and the yield point of a gel are readily deter­ mined by these instruments.

The readings must be calcu­

lated against a standard liquid.

Consequently, the values 9 obtained are relative and not absolute viscosities. Surface tension i3 a measure of the amount of work

which must be put into a liquid in order to increase its surface area by a unit amount, or the force needed to com9 pensate the tendency of the liquid surface to contract# The Christian-Becker Balance, 13 a modification of the du Nouy Tensiometer, measures the dynes of force neces­ sary to break the surface tension when a platinum ring is

IS

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94

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15

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16 '.TrfMIWr'J

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to

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18

underneath the surface of a liquid.

Tests were made using

the Christian-Becker Balance and a graph of the results appears on page 19.

Sterculia Gum solutions varying from

1 to 10 per cent were employed.

19 w

: