CORRELATION OF VARIATION IN RESIN CONTENT OF PODOPHYLLUM 



WITH CERTAIN HABITATS. 

 W. K. M. SCOTT AND E. J. PETRY. 



In an attempt to correlate ecologic factors with economic production of 

 the resin of Podophyllum the writers have made a study* of resin content in 

 three different habitats. No attempt was made to determine relative potency 

 of the resins from these habitats, i. e., potency or medicinal value was assumed 

 to be uniform. 



On account of the rising prices of extracting reagents and cost of collec- 

 given amount of material and a minimum amount of labor in collecting 

 tion it seemed desirable to find out if the ultimate cost of production might 

 not be lowered by determining which habitats would give most resin for a 

 rhizomes. 



In the conclusions arrived at, no allowance for the variable intelligence 

 of collectors is made. The three habitats varied as to shade, air movement, 

 soil moisture and humus and associated plants, while the soil had essentially 

 the same origin. The plants used bore no fruit, so that it was possible to 

 eliminate the effect of fruit bearing on the resin content. Colony character- 

 istics and their ecologic factors will be enumerated below. 



The methods of extraction were those given in United States Pharma- 

 copoeia, 9th ed. (1916), with such refinements as would completely exhaust 

 the material and constantly recover the maximum amount of resin from the 

 alcoholic extract. This, in the first part of the extraction, involved the use of 

 filter paper in soxhlet tubes (without heat) and more alcohol than is com- 

 monly recommended. The alcohol added to each extraction had not been 

 previously used ; i. e., it was poured on from above. The tubes were carefully 

 washed with alcohol after the extract showed no further miscrocopic or 

 chemical traces of resin in the last extraction siphoned off. This is necessary 

 in order to recover traces of resin which tend to climb up the glass sides of 

 the tubes. 



The alcohol was evaporated at a temperature just below its boiling point, 

 until the extract was less viscous than that recommended in the United States 

 Pharmacopoeia, both on account of the difliculty of removal for precipitation, 

 and because the dark color of a denser extract indicated a condition which 

 might affect the ease of preciptation and amount of resin recoverable, if not 

 indeed the quality of the resin. It would seem that concentration of the 



♦Thesis, in part, submitted for degree of M.Sc, Purdue University, 1918, by 

 "W. R. M. Scott. 



21st Mich. Acad. Sci. Rept., 1919. 



