187 
MEDICINAL USES OF DRUG REANTS 
CULTIVATED IN THE MEDICINAL PLANT GARDEN 
OF THE BROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDEN 
By Proressor C. W. BALvLarp, Dean, College of Pharmacy, 
Columbia University. With the collaboration of Dr. Rarpn H. 
Cueney, Resident Investigator, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Chair- 
man, Biology Department, Long Island University ; and Prof. F. J. 
Poxorny, College of Pharmacy, Columbia University. 
Many of the vegetable drugs used in medicine are included in 
the United States Pharmacopoeia and National Formulary, both of 
which references contain extensive descriptions of the part of the 
plant used medicinally together with the legal standards of purity 
and potency. The abbreviations U.S.P. and N.F. appearing after 
the several names of a drug plant indicate its recognition and inclu- 
sion in these official books of drug standards. The abbreviation 
N.O. indicates a drug plant which has no official recognition in 
these books. 
Aconite (Aconitum napellus), Monkshood, U.S.P. The poi- 
sonous nature of this plant has been known since the earliest times 
— 
and certain species native to China and India have long been in 
use for medicinal purposes in those countries. Present supplies 
are imported from the mountainous regions of Spain, France, Ger- 
many and Austria, although owing to present conditions the In- 
dian aconites are appearing upon the market. The active con- 
stituents are extremely poisonous alkaloids. The tuberous root is 
recognized in the official compendia of nearly all countries. The 
drug is administered internally and with caution as a heart seda- 
tive. Externally applied, usually in liniment form, it is anodyne. 
On the whole, aconite is not used extensively in medicine today. 
Many dentists use aconite plus iodine for painting the gums to 
numb the nerve endings before a hypodermic injection of procaine. 
Probably 20 to 30 acres of the proper cultivation of the Sparks 
variety, yielding 500 Ibs. per acre, would supply U. S. needs. 
Aconitum varieties vary in toxicity. Toxicity also varies with the 
chromosome number. Diploids are non-toxic usually. Triploids 
and tetraploids are extremely toxic, (See Bonisteel, Wm. 
Jour. Am, Pharm. Assoc. Sci. ed. 29, No. 9, Sept. 1940.) 
