DIE OFFIZINELLEN PFLANZEN UND DROGEN 67 



Die offizinellen Pflanzen unci Drogen. Von Dr. Wilhelm 

 Mitlacher, a.o., Professor fur Pharmakognosie an der 

 Universitat Wien. Carl Fromme. Wien und Leipzig. 

 1912. 8vo, pp. 1-136. 

 The object of this little brochure is to give some idea of the 

 medicinal plants and drugs that are ■" officinal " in the pharma- 

 copoeias of Europe, Japan, and the United States. The term 

 11 officinal " employed by Dr. Mitlacher is used in the sense 

 in which "official" is taken in this country. The author 

 began the work with the view of ascertaining the number of 

 medicinal plants that might be profitably cultivated in different 

 countries, but at the request of various botanical teachers and 

 medical friends was led to arrange the material in systematic 

 order, under the families of plants to which the drugs belong. 

 The medicinal plants and plant products of twenty-two pharma- 

 copoeias are included. The arrangement followed is that of Engler 

 and Prantl's Naturlicher Pflanzenfamilien and E. von Wettstein's 

 Handbuch der systematischen Botanih. 



It is difficult to realise in this country how many plants are 

 official (i.e., authorised) in foreign pharmacopoeias, which in this 

 country are sold only by herbalists, and would here be regarded as 

 officinal ("officina," a workshop). It will readily be understood 

 that the number of plants is considerable, since they belong to one 

 hundred and twenty-eight families. Under each plant brief men- 

 tion is made of the part of the plant employed, its therapeutic uses, 

 and the pharmacopoeias in which it occurs. Anyone interested 

 in medical botany will therefore find this enumeration very useful 

 for reference. But, like most works of the kind, in the first 

 edition there is room for improvement. Thus, the Addendum 

 to the British Pharmacopoeia has been overlooked, and several 

 valuable Indian and Colonial drugs are consequently omitted. 

 Indeed, it is a pity that all pharmacopoeias at present in use are 

 not included. The idea of the work is a novel one, and worthy 

 of further development. A few corrections might be made 

 in a future edition. Thus (p. 25), Butua is a name applied to 

 Chondrodendron tomentosum E. & P., but not to Cissampelos 

 Pareira Linn., and the latter is not identical with Chondodendron 

 platyphyllum Miers. Gynocardia odorata E. Br. is not the source 

 of Chaulmugra oil, which was shown some years ago in the 

 Pharmaceutical Journal (4), xii., p. 596", to be derived from 

 Tarahtogenos Kurzii King. Ferula rubricaulis Boiss. (p. 65) 

 cannot yield Galbanum, since the plant has the odour of 

 Asafeetida. Siam Benzoin (p. 68) has quite recently been 

 determined to be the produce, not of an unknown species, 

 but of Styrax benzoides Craib. Scopolia carniolica Jacquin 

 (p. 71) was spelt Scopola by that botanist ; Mentha canadensis 

 var. piperascens Briq. (p. 81) does not correspond exactly to 

 M. arvensis var. piperascens Holmes, since the former has 

 narrower and more elliptical leaves, and yields much more 

 menthol than the latter. 



The impression is conveyed in the text (p. 86) that all the 



