Ground mace, which is powdered by stamps or by pounding, the same as nutmegs or mustard, loses its flavor very rapidly and when distilled yields a reddish, buttery oil, which can be obtained by process of distillation. This oil is strong and volatile and contains an oxygenated body, the properties of which have not been determined. This buttery oil, mixed with other substances, is known as nutmeg balsam. (See [nutmegs].)
The uniform, small-celled, angular parenchyma of mace contains numerous brown cells of large size and the inner parts contain thin, brown vascular bundles. The cells of the epidermis on either side are colorless, containing thick walls, longitudinally extended, and covered with a peculiar cuticle of broad, flat, ribbon-like cells as a continuous film which cannot be removed. The parenchyma also contains many small granules to which a red color is imparted by means of a solution of meracious nitrate and an orange hue by use of iodine. This result shows that they consist of albuminous matter without starch.
The chemical characteristics are so marked and the structure is so closely carried out that the adulteration of ground mace is very easily detected.
All the details of structure in the ground powder of mace are readily made out by chloral-hydrate preparation with the polarized light, as the brown vascular bundles, the ribbon-like and epidermal cells are all polarizing substances, while the large mass of granular parenchymous cells are not. The ribbon-like cells are particularly interesting in the varied forms they assume.
THE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF MACE
The nature of the principal constituent of mace can be found from the following experiments:
Seventeen grammes of finely pulverized mace were entirely exhausted by boiling ether and the solvent left to spontaneous evaporations. The residue, amounting to 5.57 grammes after dessications at 100 degrees C., was reduced in weight to 4.17, the loss 1.40 grammes being the essential oil, which was 8.2 per cent. The residue, amounting to 24.5 per cent., was thick, aromatic balsam in which we can find no trace or presence of fat, but, instead, it consisted of resin and semi-resinified aromatic oil. Alcohol extracts from this 1.4 per cent. of uncrystallizable sugar, which may be reduced by cupric oxide. The drug after this treatment with alcohol and ether yields scarcely anything to cold water, but boiling water extracts 1.8 per cent. of mucilage, which takes a blue color if treated with iodine, or a reddish-violet if previously dried. This test shows that it has qualities quite different from those of nutmegs. This substance is not soluble in an ammoniacal solution of cupric oxide; it seems rather to be an intermediary body between gum and starch, and may be called amylodextrin.[[7]] It is distinguished from the true starch by being stained reddish brown instead of blue by an aqueous solution of iodine; the grains of amylodextrin[[7]] do not appear to contain even a nucleus of starch. As seen under the microscope, they have usually somewhat the form of a rod and are often curved or coiled; less often they are roundish or disc-shaped; they do not usually exhibit any evident stratification.
[7]. Amyloceous, starchy.
Chemical composition: