THE BOTANICAL FEATURES OF THE NEW UNITED 

 STATES PHARMACOPCEIA. 



By L. E. Sayke, University of Kansas, Lawrence. 



T^HE eighth decennial revision of the United States Pharma- 

 ■^ copcuia, which has recently been published, is of interest to 

 the chemist and botanist alike. In the pages of this legal stand- 

 ard there is contained a list of drugs derived from the vegetable 

 kingdom. These drugs are from various parts of plants and the 

 plants are distributed very widely over the globe. It is exceedingly 

 interesting to the botanist to note that in the references made to 

 botanical drugs an effort has been made in the recent revision, as 

 far as possible, to restore the names given to the plants by the 

 original authors. In some cases it has been almost impossible to 

 make any such changes; for example, in our common wild cherry, 

 which was made official in this standard work scores of years ago, 

 and under the name of Prunus virginiana. It is well known 

 that the botanical source of the medicinal wild cherry bark is from 

 Prximis serotina. Therefore, the United States Pharmacopoeia 

 speaks of wild cherry as Prunus virginiana derived from the bark 

 of Prunus serotina. Quite a number of changes have occurred in 

 the new pharmacopeia resulting from the changes which investi- 

 gation has made necessary in transferring plants into new families 

 or natural orders. No less than twelve changes have been made by 

 transferring plants into other orders than were formerly recognized 

 as the jjroper order. In the case of Urticacai, for example, in the 

 pharmacopoeia of 1890 the natural order Urticacse included the fol- 

 lowing drugs : Vlmus, Humulus, Cannabis indica, Ficus. In the 

 present pharmacopoeia Ulm.us is placed under the new order Ul- 

 macese, and Humulus and Cannabis indica under the Moracacpe. 

 Many of the plants and products of the pines that were formerly 

 classified under the natural order Coniferse are now classified under 

 the family Pinacese. Examples of such changes as these, as I 

 have said, are of interest to the botanist, and it goes to show that 

 as old a science as botany claims to be, it is by no means incapa- 

 ble of change and improvement, when such changes as these are 

 possible. 



Under the description of drugs derived from the vegetable king- 

 dom, the pharmacopoeia shows strikingly the progress which has 



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