STRAMONIUM 



605 



The amount of total alkaloids varies in different parts of the same 

 plant and has been reported as follows: Roots, 0.2 per cent; stems, 

 0.02 per cent; leaves, 0.35 per cent, and seeds, 0.25 per cent. 



Koch (Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1919, 91, p. 11) finds that the ratio of 

 leaves to stems is about 47.5 to 52.5. The ratio of leaf to stem and 

 root, the leaf represents 41 per cent of the whole. Furthermore he 

 finds that the entire plant of stramonium, with or without the root, 

 can be harvested without the total alkaloidal content falling below 

 0.25 per cent. (See also Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1919, 91, p. 186.) 



ST- 



..-0? 

 I. --OS 

 CO 



FIG. 265. Transverse section of midrib of leaf of stramonium: EU, upper epi- 

 dermis; CO, collenchyma; PA, palisade cells; 0, layer of cells containing 

 rosette aggregates of calcium oxalate; M, loose mesophyll; EL, lower 

 epidermis; OP, prisms of calcium oxalate; OS, sphenoidal microcrystals of 

 calcium oxalate; ST, stoma; T, trachea?; SU, sieve on upper side of xylem; 

 SL, sieve on lower side of xylem, this arrangement of sieve and trachea 

 forming bi-collateral fibrovascular bundles. 



Stramonii Semen (Stramonium Seed). Campylotropous, reni- 

 form, flattened, about 3 to 4 mm. in length, 2 to 3 mm. in breadth; 

 externally bluish-black, minutely reticulate; hard but easily cut 

 lengthwise along the edge; internally whitish, the reserve layer 

 occupying about one-half the seed, the embryo crook-shaped; odor 

 slight, disagreeable when the drug is bruised ; taste bitter. 



The powder is brownish-black or grayish-black; epidermal cells 

 having thick somewhat mucilagionous outer walls, and small lumina 

 having a dark brown content; sub-epidermal layer of thick-walled, 



