276 SCIENTIFIC AND APPLIED PHARMACOGNOSY 



scars on upper surface and numerous root-scars on lower surface; 

 fracture short and somewhat waxy; internally, bark dark brown, 

 about 0.5 mm. in thickness, wood and pith with numerous reddish 

 resin-cells; odor slight; taste bitter and acrid. 



Shriveled rhizomes which are gray internally and free from 

 starch should be rejected. 



Inner Structure. (Fig. 125.) A layer of small, thin-walled 

 epidermal cells; cortex of 10 to 15 rows of thin-walled parenchyma 

 cells containing numerous starch grains, or a small amount of fixed 

 oil; a strand of cambium, most of which is interfascicular: a narrow 

 circular zone of small collateral fibrovascular bundles, separated 

 from each other by parenchyma; pith large, consisting of starch- 

 bearing parenchyma cells ; laticif erous sacs containing a red or orange- 

 colored latex, either isolated or in longitudinal rows and distributed 

 among the parenchymatous cells of the middle bark and pith; sec- 

 tions treated with glycerin show in the secretion cells, after twenty- 

 four hours, spheroidal aggregates of crystals which strongly polarize 

 light. 



Powder. Brownish-red; sternutatory; starch grains numerous, 

 0.003 to 0.020 mm. in diameter, being mostly single, seldom 2- to 

 3-compound, the individual grains nearly spheroidal or ovoid, some- 

 times more or less plano-convex, somewhat resembling those of 

 wheat starch in outline, but which polarize light more strongly; 

 numerous fragments of short reddish-brown resinous laticiferous 

 sacs; tracheal fragments few, having numerous transverse slit-like 

 pores. 



Constituents. The drug contains a number of alkaloids, of which 

 the most important is sanguinarine; it occurs to the extent of about 

 1 per cent, crystallizes in colorless needles and yields reddish salts 

 with nitric or sulphuric acid. The other alkaloids include chelery- 

 thrine, which forms yellowish salts; protopine, also found in other 

 plants, and /3- and 7-homochelidonine, which, like the last two alka- 

 loids, are found in Chelidonium and some other plants. In addition, 

 the drug contains a reddish resin, several organic acids, as citric 

 and malic, and considerable starch. 



FUMARIACE^E, OR FUMITORY FAMILY 



Mostly delicate herbs and a few green shrubs. The leaves are 

 usually compound and the flowers irregular, one or both of the petals 

 having a spurred or a saccate base. The fruit is a unilocular capsule 

 containing one or more seeds. They are especially characterized by 



