SABATIA 539 



Sabatia. SABBATIA, AMERICAN CENTAURY, SQUARE STEMMED 

 SABBATIA OR ROSE PINK. The over-ground plant of Sabatia (Sab- 

 batia) angularis (Fam. Gentianaceae), a biennial herb growing in rich 

 soil and moist meadows throughout the eastern United States and 

 Canada. The plant is collected at the time of flowering, during the 

 summer, and the commercial drug frequently consists of only the 

 stems with their capsular fruits. 



Description. Stems distinctly 4-angled, except in the lower por- 

 tion which may be somewhat cylindrical, branching, the upper 

 branches being opposite; externally very light green to light yellow- 

 ish- or pinkish-brown; glabrous throughout and having at the 

 angles a thin membranous wing-like ridge, due to the extra develop- 

 ment of collenchyma; fracture fibrous; pith hollow. Leaves 

 cordate-ovate or oblong, summit acute, base usually more or less 

 clasping, margin entire; thin, of an olive-green color and palmately 

 3- to 5-nerved. Flowers consisting of a deeply 5-parted calyx having 

 lanceolate or linear teeth; corolla rotate, 5-parted, the segments 

 being obovate-elliptical, about 1.5 cm. in length and when fresh or 

 carefully dried of a rose-pink color otherwise pinkish-brown; stamens 

 5, having linear anthers, becoming more or less recurved and revolute; 

 ovary oblong, having a long style and a bi-cleft stigma which at first 

 is connivent, later spreading and after fertilization, becoming more 

 or less twisted. Fruit. ; a 2-valved, oblong or ovoid capsule, tipped 

 with the slender remains of the style, dark brown in color and cov- 

 ered with a resin. Seeds numerous ellipsoidal, deeply reticulate from 

 0.200 to 0.400 mm. in length. 



Inner Structure. The stems consist of a thick-walled epidermal 

 layer, the cuticle being much wrinkled; a cortex of several layers of 

 chlorophyll-containing parenchyma; endodermis and pericycle not 

 distinct; the stele of a small zone of leptome, and a compact xylem 

 made up chiefly of wood fibers and thick-walled parenchyma and 

 relatively few tracheae; the intraxylary leptome is situated at the 

 periphery of the pith, being frequently quite separated from the 

 xylem; pith of thin-walled parenchyma at the periphery, free from 

 starch, being hollow at the center. The structure of the leaf is very 

 simple, the chlorenchyma being almost homogeneous in structure, 

 and the stomata, which are confined to the dorsal surface, lack sub- 

 sidiary cells. 



Constituents. A bitter principle, 3.75 per cent; erythrocen- 

 taurin; a volatile oil; a greenish resin; mucilage; sugars; ash 2.85 

 per cent.. 



Literature. Hankey, Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1891, p. 335. 



