xii Table of Contents 



5. Sources of the Drug 140 



5.1 : Scope of Study 140 



5.2: Problems in Pharmacognosy 141 



5.3: Plants Containing Ciolchicine 141 



5.4: Cultivation, Collection, and Preparation 150 



5.5: The Crude Drug 151 



5.6: Compounds Isolated From Coldiicuin 153 



6. Chemistry 159 



6.1: Extraction and Ccneral Properties 159 



6.2: The Functional Groups 160 



6.3: The Structural Problem 161 



6.4: Comparison AV'ith Tropolones 168 



6.5: Structure of Colchicine 169 



6.6: Miscellany 169 



7. Pharmacology 175 



7.1: Colchicine in Medical Therapeutics and Forensic Practice .175 



7.2: Colchicine Poisoning in Man 176 



7.3: Disturbances Unrelated to Mitotic Poisoning 178 



7.4: Disturbances Possibly Related to Mitotic Poisoning 183 



7.5: Nonspecific Toxic Changes 190 



7.6: Metabolism of Colchicine 194 



7.7: The Treatment of Gout 196 



8. Embryonic Growth in Animals 202 



8.1: Action on Gonads and Early Development 202 



8.2: Colchicine-induced Malfoniiations 206 



8.3: A Tool for the Study of Embryonic Growth 209 



9. Experimental Growth in Animals 214 



9.1: Endocrinological Research 214 



9.2: Theoretical Considerations 216 



9.3: Cellular Multiplication in Normal Growth 219 



9.4: Hormone-stimulated Growth 224 



9.5: Regeneration and Hypertrophy 236 



9.6: Wound Healing 246 



9.7: The Action of Chemicals on Mitotic Growth 247 



10. Neoplastic Growths — in Animals and Plants 255 



10.1: Colchicine in Cancer Research 255 



10.2: Experimental Study of Neoplastic Cells 258 



10.3: Cancer Chemotherapy 260 



10.4: Chemotherapy of Human Neoplasms 263 



10.5: A Tool for the Study of Cancer Chemotherapy 265 



10.6: Plant Tumors ' 265 



10.7: Colchicine and X-rays Associated 266 



10.8: The Study of Carcinogenesis 269 



1 1. The Experimental Polyploids 274 



11.1: 1937 — Beginning of a New Era in Polyploidv 274 



1 1 .2: Terminology [ 276 



11.3: Catachsmic Origin of Species 277 



