368 SCIENTIFIC AND APPLIED PHARMACOGNOSY 



gates, 0.010 to 0.025 mm. in diameter; fragments of laminae showing 

 large oil secretion cavities and usually containing one or more glob- 

 ules of an oily substance; mesophyll cells frequently with reddish- 

 brown tannin masses, turning green with ammonio-ferric sulphate 

 solution; non-glandular hairs 1-celled, thick-walled, with numerous 

 slight centrifugal projections, 0.4 to 0.6 mm. in length in P. Jabor- 

 andi and 0.040 to 0.060 mm. in length in P. pinnatifolius and P. 

 microphyllus. In P. microphyllus the stomata are smaller than in 

 the other two species. 



Constituents. About 0.5 to 1 per cent of the alkaloid pilocarpine, 

 which occurs as a colorless, syrupy liquid, but forms well-defined 

 crystalline salts, the hydrochloride and nitrate being official. It is 

 very soluble in water, the solutions being dextrorotatory. Pilo- 

 carpine is decomposed by heat or alkalies and yields an isomeric 

 substance, isopilocarpine, which is an oily compound and is usually 

 present in the commercial nitrate of pilocarpine. The alkaloid pilo- 

 carpidine has been obtained from the mother liquors, after the crys- 

 tallization of pilocarpine, as a syrupy substance forming a crystalline 

 nitrate and resembling somewhat pilocarpine in its physiological 

 action. An alkaloid related to pilocarpine has been isolated from the 

 leaves of P. pinnatifolius in the form of an amorphous substance 

 called jaborine, and resembling atropine in its physiological proper- 

 ties. Recent investigations do not seem to show that these alkaloids 

 occur in either the leaves of Paraguay or Maranham Jaborandi. 

 Fresh pilocarpus leaves also yield 0.2 to 1.1 per cent of a volatile 

 oil which contains a hydrocarbon pilocarpene and a stearoptene 

 belonging to the define series. 



Allied Drugs. Nearly all of the species of Pilocarpus contain 

 "some pilocarpine, as well as other principles which are found in the 

 true leaves. Many of these find their way into commerce and in 

 some instances their assays compare favorably with the official 

 leaves. Aracati Jaborandi is obtained from P. spicatus, the leaflets 

 being broad and coriaceous and said to contain 0.16 per cent of alka- 

 loids. The leaflets of P. racemosus of the West Indies are large and 

 membranous and contain about .66 per cent of pilocarpine. 



Buchu. The leaves of several speciec of Barosma (Fam. Ruta- 

 cese), a shrub indigenous to Cape Colony. There are two chief 

 commercial varieties: (1) Short Buchu, obtained from B. betulina 

 and (2) Long Buchu, obtained from B. serratifolia (Fig. 162). The 

 two drugs differ considerably in their constituents. 



Short Buchu. Obovate, rhomboid-obovate, ovate or elliptical or 

 somewhat cuneate; 9 to 18 mm. in length, 6 to 12 mm. in breadth; 



