SOAP BARK 



303 



less thick-walled and with simple, oblique pores; starch grains 

 nearly spheroidal, from 0.003 to 0.010 mm. in diameter. 



Constituents. The drug contains two amorphous glucosides 

 amounting to about 9 per cent, which are closely related to saponin 

 one soluble in alcohol and known as quillajic acid, and the other 

 nearly insoluble in alcohol and known as quillajasapotoxin; it also 

 contains starch and about 10 per cent of calcium oxalate. 



Substitutes. A spurious Quillaja is being offered at the present 

 time. The bark yields less saponin, is more brittle than the genuine 

 bark and is covered with a thin, brownish layer. 



FIG. 136. Soap bark: Ca, pyramids of calcium oxalate; B, bast fibers; St, 

 stone cells; S, starch grains; P, parenchyma containing starch and calcium 

 oxalate; MR, medullary rays; A, parenchyma with simple pores. 



Cusso. Kousso, Bray era. The pistillate flowers of Hagenia 

 abyssinica (Fam. Rosacese), a tree indigenous to northeastern Africa, 

 and cultivated in Abyssinia. The entire panicles are collected soon 

 after pollination and dried in the sun; the flowers are sometimes 

 stripped from the panicles, or the panicles are made into rolls. 



Description. (Fig. 137.) In more or less cylindrical rolls about 

 30 cm. in length and about 5 cm. in diameter; branches cylindrical, 



