MULLEIN 631 



Powder. Dark brown; fragments of parenchyma containing a 

 light brown or brownish-black resin, the latter frequently closely 

 coherent with the starch grains in the cells and preventing the 

 separation of the individual grains; starch grains numerous, nearly 

 spheroidal or more or less polygonal and from 0.002 to 0.008 mm. 

 in diameter; tracheae having spiral thickenings, with simple or 

 bordered pores; wood fibers having thick lignified porous walls, 

 resembling tracheids; fragments containing a pigment which is 

 colored pink or violet upon the addition of solutions of hydrated 

 chloral; epidermal cells of the root having thick lamellated walls. 



Constituents. An amorphous substance having an intensely 

 bitter and nauseous taste, and yielding on hydrolysis a resinous 

 material, and cinnamic and p-methoxycinnamic acids. Also a 

 phytosterol which has been designated verosterol; a volatile oil; 

 tannic acid; a sugar; a resin; d-mannitol, p-methoxycinnamic 

 acid, and 3 : 4-dimethoxycinnamic acid. The last-mentioned acid 

 had not previously been observed to occur in nature. Power, Jour. 

 Chem. Soc., 1910, p. 1944. 



VERBASCI FOLIA. Herba Verbasci, Common Mullein Leaves. 

 The leaves of Verbascum Thapsus (Fam. Scrophulariacese), a biennial 

 herb naturalized from Europe and growing in fields and waste places 

 in the eastern and central United States, often becoming a common 

 weed. The leaves are gathered during summer, at the time of 

 flowering of the plant, and carefully dried. 



Description. Leaves, elliptical, ovate, short petiolate, from 6 to 

 30 cm. in length and 2.5 to 10 cm. in breadth; summit acute or 

 rounded, margin dentate, base decurrent, narrowed into the petiole; 

 pale grayish-green and densely, wooly-hairy throughout; very thick, 

 rather tough; inodorous; taste mucilaginous and slightly bitter. 



Inner Structure. Especially characteristic are the branched 

 multicellular candelabra hairs, which consist of an upright, uniseriate 

 main axis, from which whorls of from 2 to 8 ray-cells arise at certain 

 points, the individual cells being from 0.150 to 0.400 mm. in length 

 and contain not infrequently one or more air-bubbles; glandular 

 hairs 2-celled, consisting of a stalk, from 0.030 to 0.065 mm. in 

 length and having a nearly spheroidal secreting cell at the summit; 

 epidermal cells strongly undulate, stomata broadly elliptica , about 

 0.030 mm. in length and having 3 to 5 neighboring cells. 



Constituents. The drug contains an amorphous bitter principle; 

 mucilage; a trace of a volatile oil; and from 1 to 2 per cent of resin, 

 part of which is soluble in ether. 



Literature. Holm, Merck's Report, 1914, p. 4. 



