612 SCIENTIFIC AND APPLIED PHARMACOGNOSY 



Powder. Light yellowish brown; fragments of numerous ligni- 

 fied wood fibers having bordered pores, and associated with a few 

 wide tracheae possessing simple pores; occasional non-lignified bast 

 fibers and fragments of yellowish-brown cork; sphenoidal micro- 

 crystals from 0.003 to 0.007 mm. in diameter; starch grains few, 

 nearly spheroidal, from 0.005 to 0.012 mm. in diameter; occasional 

 long unicellular hairs having thick walls and a papillose cuticle. 



Constituents. A bitter glucosidal principle, dulcamarin, soluble 

 in water and alcohol and yielding upon hydrolysis glucose and dul- 

 camaretin, the latter being tasteless. About 0.03 of a gluco-alka- 

 loid, solanine, which forms prisms and is soluble in amyl alcohol, 

 slightly soluble in hot alcohol, only sparingly soluble in boiling water, 

 and upon hydrolysis yields dextrose and a crystalline alkaloid, 

 solanidine. Also ash, having a greenish color, not more than 6 per 

 cent. 



Solanine occurs in all parts of the potato plant and under certain 

 conditions may accumulate in the tubers. It occurs from 0.79 to 

 0.41 parts per 1000 parts of potatoes. It may be present in sprouting 

 potatoes in a sufficient amount to cause serious poisoning. (Harris 

 and Cockburn, Amer. Jour. Phar., 1918, 90, p. 722.) 



Adulterants. The following drugs have been substituted for 

 Dulcamara: The stems of false bittersweet (Celastrus scandens) 

 which are more woody and not hollow; hop stems which are rough 

 hairy; and the rhizome of Saponaria which is terete and wrinkled 

 (Fig. 86). 



SOLANUM CAROLINENSE. Horse Nettle. The ripe fruit of 

 Solanum carolinense (Fam. Solanacese), a perennial herb, propagat- 

 ing extensively by rhizomes and growing in dry fields and waste 

 places throughout the eastern and central United States. The stem 

 is erect, branched, rough-pubescent, and covered with stout, yellowish 

 prickles (Fig. 268). The leaves are oblong-ovate, sinuate lobed, 

 hairy and prickly like the stem. The flowers are regular and arranged 

 in unilateral racemes; the calyx is 5-parted, the lobes being lanceolate 

 or acuminate; the corolla is 5-lobed, rotate, light blue; the stamens, 

 of which there are 10, are orange yellow and connivent; the ovary 

 is 2-locular, becoming in fruit a superior globose berry. The latter 

 is collected when ripe, during the summer, and carefully dried. 



Description. Globular, pericarp much shriveled; from 7 to 18 

 mm. in diameter; externally, when fresh, orange yellow, becoming 

 yellowish brown or greenish brown on drying, epicarp nearly smooth 

 and shiny and usually much wrinkled and subtended by the 5-lobed 

 hairy calyx; pericarp very thin and membranous, brittle; placentae 



