Title The Chemical Nature of the Extractives From The Bark o

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the nature of the extractives from red alder bark in an effort to discover the materials which cause the red stain in red alder wood. Samples of bark and wood were obtained and successively extracted with hexane, benzene, ether, ethanol, and hot water. The total extractive, content of the bark was 24.01 percent, while that of the wood was 8.60 percent. The hexane extract amounted to three percent of the dry weight of the bark. Sixty percent of this extract was a saponifiable fatty acid mixture with a neutral equivalent of 290 and a Hanus iodine number of 80.3. Linoleic acid wasshown to be present in this mixture. Saponified alcohols and other neutral materials composed 29.1 percent of the hexane extract, and contained a phytosterol, the triterpene alcohol alnulin, and the triterpene ketone protalnulin