556 SCIENTIFIC AND APPLIED PHARMACOGNOSY 



Purga and Batata Purgante, is the root of Piptostegia Pisonis Mart. 

 (Fam. Convolvulacese) . It occurs in transverse circular or oval sec- 

 tions, from 3 to 8 cm. in diameter and 0.3 to 0.8 cm. in thickness. 

 The cut surface is marked with several concentric rings having a pale 

 grayish-brown color and numerous dots of a translucent pale resin. 

 It contains about 20 per cent of resin and differs from that of other 

 drugs obtained from this family (Scoville, Jour. A. Ph. A. 1918, 7, 

 p. 785; Farwell, ibid., p. 852; Ewing and Clevenger, ibid., p. 855). 



Resina Drastica. The drug comes from Mexico and in a general 

 way resembles Mexican Scammony. The pieces represent both 

 transverse and longitudinal sections of a root somewhat resembling 

 Brazilian Jalap but are of a darker color. The cut surface is short- 

 fibrous, due to the projections of the fibrovascular bundles. The 

 amount of resin is 19.2 per cent. It is of a deep lemon-yellow color 

 and gives with ferrous sulphate a dark green color resembling true 

 Scammony resin. (Scoville, Jour. Indust. Eng. Chem., 1919, 11, 

 p. 335.) 



Turpeth Root or Indian Jalap is the root of Operculina Tur- 

 pethum, a plant growing in the East Indies. It contains a resin 

 consisting chiefly of turpethin and turpethein, a glucosidal, ether- 

 soluble resinoid substance. 



Male Jalap or Orizaba is the root of Ipomoea orizabensis, a plant 

 indigenous to Mexico. The drug consists of the entire, spindle- 

 shaped roots, or of more or less rectangular pieces, and contains 

 about 10 per cent of scammonin. 



Ipomce simulans, indigenous to the eastern slope of the Mexican 

 Andes, yields the Tampico jalap, which is more or less uniform in 

 thickness, somewhat tortuous, and without any lenticels; it contains 

 about 10 per cent of resin, which is completely soluble in ether and 

 resembles scammonin. 



Wild jalap is the tuberous root of Ipomcea pandurata, a plant 

 growing in the eastern and southern United States. It contains 1.5 

 per cent of an active resin. 



From the aerial stems of the common morning glory (Ipomcea 

 purpurea Roth) Power and Rogerson (Am. Jour. Pharm., 1908, 

 p. 251) isolated a volatile oil and 4.8 per cent of a soft resin of which 

 15.5 per cent is soluble in ether. 



The roots and stems of Ipomcea fistulosa, of South America, 

 yield 0.2 per cent of jalapin (orizbin), hexose, wax and tannin. 



Literature. Snyder, Jour. A. Ph. A., 1916, 5, p. 34. 



Compound Powder of Jalap. Consisting of powdered jalap and 

 potassium bitartrate. Very light brown; consisting of numerous 



