328 UMBELLIFER.E 



jagged ribs but no oil-tubes ; the flat side or commissure is deeply furrowed, 

 giving to a transverse cut surface a reniform outline. Almost odorless; 

 taste disagreeable and somewhat acrid; when triturated with a solution of 

 KOH, conium emits the peculiar, mouse- like odor characteristic of 

 the volatile alkaloid, coniine, which is liberated thereby. The total alkaloids 

 in the fruit may reach as high as 3.5 per cent., rapidly diminishing as it ripens. 



Powder. Pale yellowish-brown. Characteristic elements: Parenchyma of 

 endosperm, rather thick-walled with oil globules and aleurone (4 to 7 p indiam.); 

 aggregate calcium oxalate (i to 2/* in diam.); other parenchyma with starch and 

 chloroplastids; sclerenchyma, from fruit and stalk with bast fibers, long and 

 thin- walled, with numerous pores; collenchymatous cells from mericarp, yellowish, 

 nearly isodiametrical, irregularly thickened. 



CONSTITUENTS. The liquid alkaloid, coniine, CsHiyN (the active constituent), 

 methyl coniine, CsHieCCHaJN (also liquid), conhydrine, anditsisomer, pseudo- 

 coniine. Coniine is a yellowish, oily, volatile liquid (sp. gr. 0.88), very 

 acrid, and of a strong, mouse-like odor; it is strongly basic, and is combined 



FIG. 190. Fruit ot Hemlock (Conium FIG. 191. Cross-section of the fruit of 



maculatum). Conium maculatum, 20 diam. 



in the fruit with conhydric acid, from which it may instantly be freed and its 

 odor developed in the fruit by rubbing with potassa, as noted above; its 

 action is that of a paralyzant to the motor nervous system. Methyl coniine 

 resembles it in action. Conhydrine is in iridescent scales, melting at I2O.6C . 



Preparation of Coww'we. -Liberated from drug by distilling it with alkali. 

 Methyl coniine and conhydrine is likely to come over with it. 



Separation of Conhydrine from Coniine. Reduce the temperature of the oily 

 liquid containing the two by a freezing mixture. Recrystallize from ether. Occurs 

 in iridescent scales, less poisonous than coniine. 



ACTION AND USES. Conium is narcotic and sedative; its principal action is as a 

 paralyzant to the motor nerves. Dose: 3 to 5 gr. (0.2 to 0.3 Gm.). The 

 alkaloid coniine is an active poison, the dose being from y to % IIR (0.0164 to 

 0.0324 mil) ; dose of the hydrochlorate is probably about ^ gr. (o.oi Gm.). 



384. CONII FOLIA. HEMLOCK LEAVES. Grayish-green, thin, smooth, from 

 100 to 300 mm. (4 to 12 in.) long, twice or thrice decompound, with oblong- 

 lanceolate, acute, sharply serrate divisions; petiolate, the petiole hollow; 

 odor mouse-like; taste disagreeable. They contain coniine in very small 

 quantity, and are less active than the fruit, but used for the same purposes 

 as an anodyne and antispasmodic for controlling maniacal excitement 

 and spasmodic affections, such as whooping-cough, etc. Dose: about 5 

 gr. (0.3 Gm.). 



