Barilla was the commercial name for the impure carbonate and sulphate of soda formerly imported from Spain and the Levant. It is the Spanish name of a plant (Salsola Soda), from the ashes of which and from those of others of the same genus the crude alkali was obtained. On the shores of the Mediterranean the seeds of the plants from which it was obtained were regularly sown near the sea, and these, when at a sufficient state of maturity, were pulled up, dried, and burned in bundles in ovens or in trenches. The ashes, while hot, were continually stirred with long poles, and the saline matter they contain formed, when cold, a solid mass, almost as hard as stone. To obtain the carbonate of soda it was only requisite to lixiviate the barilla in boiling water, and evaporate the solution. British barilla or kelp is a still more impure alkali formerly obtained from burning seaweeds. Research Barilla
Abbreviations
SciTech
Research Barilla