xxiv INTRODUCTORY 



tile and inflammable. Formaldehyde has been proposed for the 

 preservation of orris root. Chloroform and carbon tetrachlor- 

 ide are probably the best preservatives that have been proposed. 

 A few drops of chloroform or carbon tetrachloride added to a drug 

 on placing it in the container will usually prevent it from becoming 

 "wormy." The amount of chloroform or carbon tetrachloride to 

 be used should be about 25 c.c. to 100 cubic feet of drug. To be 

 effective the drug should be treated on two separate occasions. 



Commerical Forms of Drugs. Vegetable drugs are brought into 

 market in various forms; they may be crude; that is, more or less 

 entire, or in a powdered condition. Crude drugs may be nearly 

 entire, as seeds, flowers, fruits, leaves, and some roots and rhizomes; 

 or they may be cut or sliced, as in woods, barks, many roots and a few 

 rhizomes. They may be more or less matted together, as in chon- 

 drus and the solanaceous leaves; or they may be pressed together 

 by means of hydraulic pressure, giving the so-called pressed drugs; 

 or they are first powdered and then molded into forms, as " rhubarb 

 fingers." In some cases the periderm is removed, as in roots (althea) , 

 rhizomes (zingiber) and barks (ulmus). 



The quality of vegetable drugs is injured by a number of factors, 

 of which the following may be mentioned: (1) Lack of knowledge 

 or want of care in collecting them; (2) carelessness in drying and 

 keeping them; (3) insufficient care in garbling and preparing them 

 for the market; (4) inattention in preserving them and storing them; 

 (5) accidental admixture in the store, and (6) adulteration and sub- 

 stitution. 



The influence which the time of collection has on the quality 

 of vegetable drugs may be best shown by a few illustrations. It is 

 well known that when the fruits of conium are green they will yield 

 over 3 per cent of coniine, but when they become yellow the alkaloid 

 diminishes rapidly in quantity, and, therefore, much of the com- 

 mercial drug will not yield 1 per cent of coniine. The same thing 

 may be said of santonica; when the flower heads are unexpanded 

 they will yield over 3 per cent of santonin, but just so soon as the 

 flowers mature there is a rapid disappearance of the anthelmintic 

 principle. Dealers in insect powder (Pyrethri Flores) know that the 

 flowers gathered when they are closed produce the finest and most 

 powerful insect powder, worth nearly twice as much as that made 

 from the half-closed or open flowers. It may be that the variation in 

 quality of some of the commercial aconite is due to improper drying, 

 or to the extraction of the active principles; still, there is no doubt 

 but that much of the trouble with this drug is due to the variation in 



