Journal of 



Applied Microscopy. 



Volume I. 



JULY, 1898. 



Number 7 



The Use of the Microscope in the Detection of 

 Adulterants in Powdered Drugs. 



The time is within the recollection of 

 many of the microscopists of to-day 

 when the instrument which they now re- 

 gard as an essential equipment of a 

 laboratory, was little more than a toy, 

 even in the hands of a scientist. Those 

 of us who are able to look back upon 

 that time wonder why the compound 

 microscope was not more fully appre- 

 ciated. We cannot understand the skep- 

 ticism which prevailed as to its prac- 

 tical value, nor do we understand why 

 it made such slow progress in uprooting 

 the prejudice as to the accuracy of its 

 revelations. To-day the microscope has 

 come more and more into vse for what 

 may be termed practical work. Not least 

 among its practical applications is that 

 of the detection of adulterations, and 

 among the various branches of this lat- 

 ter department there has been mani- 

 fested of recent years special interest in 

 the detection of adulterants in powdered 

 vegetable drugs. It need not be said 

 that this is not an easy task, especially 

 if the adulterant be of a character simi- 

 lar in structure to that of the genuine 

 article. If the product of a powdered 

 leaf, for example, be adulterated with 

 the product of another leaf, the chances 

 for the recognition of the adulterant 

 would be in a vastly less degree prob- 

 able than if the adulterant were the pro- 

 duct of a wood or seed, for the elements 

 common to each of these are quite dif- 

 ferent and could easily be seen under 

 the proper magnification. In either case, 

 however, it becomes necessary for the 

 microscopist, if he would detect such 

 adulterant, to become familiar with the 

 microscopical characteristics of the drug 

 which he is to examine and to have a 

 knowledge of the different elements 

 which it contains. These can only be 

 understood by careful microscopical 

 ■ examination, by taking transverse, 

 longitudinal, and tangential, or ra- 



dial sections, as the case may be, 

 and by this means to locate and 

 become familiar with the structural 

 anatomy of the part under considera- 

 tion. It goes without saying that each 

 particular drug has its own characteris- 

 tic structure, and, fortunately for the 

 microscopist, the elements composing 

 this structure are not generally destroyed 

 beyond recognition during the process of 

 pulverization, even though this pulveri- 

 zation reduces the substance to the con- 

 dition known as an impalpable powder. 

 If it is in a powder of this latter class, 

 considerable difficulty is experienced as 

 compared with that of coarser powders, 

 yet even in them the elements exist 

 and, under the influence of micro- 

 chemical reagents, they exist in a 

 recognizable condition. 



During the past two or three years 

 the writer has endeavored to enter this 

 field of research and has attempted to 

 show that it is possible' to detect such 

 adulterants as are liable to occur in 

 certain medicinal powders. No attempt 

 will be made in the present article to 

 give the result of this work in detail, 

 but the aim is merely to call attention, 

 to it, to interest other lovers of the mi- 

 croscope, and to bring about if possible 

 a co-operation in the field so interesting 

 from a practical standpoint. 



One of the first studies made in this 

 line of research by the author was the 

 study of Virbunum opulus and Virbunum 

 prunifolium in the state of powder. It 

 was found by examination ot the longi- 

 tudinal and transverse sections that the 

 two barks differed in that the bark of 

 the opulus contained no stone cells, and 

 in the prunifolium stone cells were pres- 

 ent in great numbers. Therefore, the 

 following procedure for the examina- 

 tion of the different powders was found 

 all that was necessary to identify and 

 distinguish them. A few particles of the 



