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1020 
general weakness, often accompanied by hallucination. With medium 
doses there is recovery in twelve to twenty-four hours, but there is usually 
a loss of memory and great confusion of ideas for many days afterwards. 
It is this effect which gives rise to the use of the drug by the Chinese 
for stupefying a victim whom they intend to rob. 
The poisoning of enemies is not a very frequent practice among the 
Filipinos, but toxicological work has come to this laboratory, during the 
prosecution of which hyoscin was found in the stomach of the victim, 
it being very easily extracted because of its great solubility in ether. 
The dry leaf of the plant is smoked by the natives to stop asthma and is 
said to be very effective in many cases. 
Datura alba contains hyoscin, hyoscyamin, and atropine, the first 
named amounting to over 90 per cent of the total alkaloids present. 
Hesse,!* who obtained his material from eastern sources, has made a 
detailed investigation of this plant, and as there has been so much con- 
troversy on the alkaloids hyoscin and scopolin, I have considered it 
desirable to make a further study of Datura alba. In the air-dried 
leaves from Philippine specimens of the plant, I found 0.21 per cent of 
total alkaloids, in the seeds 0.465 per cent, and in the wood and roots 
(ground up together) 0.17 per cent. I can confirm Hesse’s statements 
as to the properties of hyoscin in every particular. 
The plant is a common weed in the Islands and might readily be used 
as a source of hyoscin, as two or three crops a year could easily be 
obtained. I expect to work out a cheap method of isolating the alkaloids 
from this plant with the hope of starting a small industry. Chemical 
studies of oscine, the decomposition product from hyoscin, are also 
under way. 
CAESALPINIA SAPPAN Linn.” (Leguminosea). 
This tree is encountered from British India to Malaya; it is also 
common and widely distributed in the Philippines. The Tagalog name 
is sibucao, or sapang. Sibucao is chiefly used as a dyewood, it being 
known in the English markets as sappan wood, and it is very popular 
among the Filipinos for dyeing the native fabrics. A decoction of the 
wood is also used in medicine, it being administered in cases of hemor- 
rhage, especially those from the lungs, the red color probably suggesting 
its use to check bleeding. The decoction has also been employed in 
eases of chronic diarrhcea, in which instances its efficiency is probably 
due to the tannin which it contains. 
In some reference books the statement is made that sappan wood 
contains brasilin and, indeed, Bolley *° identified this alkaloid in the 
coloring matter obtained from the wood. In view of its economic 
\ 
1% Ann. Ohem. (Liebig) (1898), 303, 149. 
“ Sp. Pl. (1753), 381; Baker in Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Ind., 2, 254. 
» J, Prakt. Chem., 93, 351. . 
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