670 SCIENTIFIC AND APPLIED PHARMACOGNOSY 



the cuticle being very prickly; fragments of corolla with sessile, 

 8-celled glandular hairs; characteristic cells of anther; stigma with 

 papillae; cells of achenes having scalarifonn perforations in the walls; 

 sclerenchymatous fibers of involucral scales. 



Constituents. Volatile oil, about 0.25 per cent of a viscid con- 

 sistency and an intense blue color. The color is due to azulene, a 

 similar principle being present in the volatile oils derived from 

 Absinthium, Achillea (yarrow), Sumbul and Valerian. The flowers 

 are also said to contain a bitter principle, anthemic acid, which forms 

 colorless, silky needles soluble in water and alcohol, and anthemidin, 

 which separates from the alcoholic solution in the form of a tasteless 

 crystalline compound. Malic acid and tannin are also present in the 

 drug. The oil when distilled from the involucre soon changes to 

 yellow, finally becoming brown; while the oil from the flowers alone 

 retains its deep-blue color even when exposed to light for some 

 weeks. 



Adulterants. In Anthemis arvensis the receptacle is solid 

 and conical and the involucral scales are lanceolate. In Anthemis 

 Cotula the peduncles are slightly pubescent and the ligulate flowers 

 neutral. 



Spanish Chamomile, the flowering heads of wild-grown Anthemis 

 nobilis, contain more volatile oil and bitter principles than the cul- 

 tivated and are probably more active, but more liable to produce 

 nausea. (Ballard, Jour. A. Ph. A., 1918, 7, p. 952.) 



Literature. Meyer, Wissenchaftliche Drogenkunde, Vol. II., 

 p. 299; also Kraemer's Applied and Economic Botany, p. 396. 



CALENDULA. Marigold. The ligulate florets of Calendula offi- 

 cinalis (Fam. Composite), an annual herb indigenous to southern 

 Europe and the Levant, and widely cultivated as a garden plant. 

 The flowers are collected when fully expanded, and then dried. 



Description. Florets usually without the ovary; corolla bright 

 yellow, 15 to 25 mm. in length, 1- to 3-toothed, 4- or 5-veined, margin 

 nearly entire, tube sometimes inclosing the remains of a filiform 

 style and bifid stigma, pubescent on the outer surface; ovary oblong, 

 about 0.5 mm. in length, pubescent; odor distinct; taste faintly 

 saline, slightly bitter. 



Powder. (Figs. 44 and 294.) Bright yellow; epidermal cells 

 narrow, elongated, having sinuous walls, numerous oily globules and 

 irregular chromoplastids; pollen grains spheroidal about 0.040 mm. 

 in diameter, having 3 pores and the cuticle being spinose; non- 

 glandular hairs consisting of a double row of cells having a 1- or 2- 

 celled summit; calcium oxalate in rosette-aggregate crystals about 



