QUALITY AND PURITY OF VEGETABLE DRUGS 41 



other foreign material) obtained from a plant botanically known as 

 Cassia acutifolia. 



The state of comminution of the drug has in no wise any bearing 

 whatsoever upon the U. S. P. requirement of quality and purity of said 

 drug. To illustrate: whole senna leaf, three-quarter senna, half 

 senna, broken senna, sifted senna, blown senna, hand-picked senna, 

 powdered senna, senna for percolation, senna for manufacturing pur- 

 pose, etc., is presumed to be U. S. P. senna. Senna with stems, senna 

 with sand and pebbles, Aden senna, American senna, senna siftings, 

 senna stems, senna dust, senna refuse, senna dirt, senna pods, senna 

 with pods and seeds, are not senna U. S. P. and anyone selling these 

 articles for senna or for senna U. S. P. is guilty of a misdemeanor. The 

 U. S. P. declarations of the identity, quality and purity of drugs are 

 very clear and very simple and the U. S. Department of Agriculture 

 has been very liberal in the interpretation of the U. S. P. purity rubric. 



2. U. S. P. Label Adding the label U. S. P. to any drug of the 

 U. S. P., shall be construed as meaning that the drug to which said 

 letters are applied, does comply with the purity and quality require- 

 ment (purity rubric) of the U. S. P., irrespective of the state or degree of 

 comminution of said drug and also irrespective of the methods or 

 processes of collecting, garbling or drying which may have been 

 employed to prepare such drug for the market. 



3. Omission of U. S. P. Label Omitting the U. S. P. label from 

 any drug of the U. S. P., without any specific declarations to the con- 

 trary, shall in no wise release such drug from the U. S. P. purity 

 rubric requirements, no matter by what name such drug may be 

 designated (as scientific name, technical names, trade names, common 

 names of any language whatsoever, etc., etc.). 



4. Non-pharmacopoeial Drugs. All drugs not defined or described 

 in the U. S. P., designated by any recognizable and defining name 

 whatsoever, shall conform to the standard of quality and purity estab- 

 lished by usage or as determined by competent authorities; unless the 

 label bear some additional distinctive statement of quality and purity, 

 in which case the article must conform to the qualifying specifications 

 added to the name. 



5. Quantitative Limits of Harmless Adulterants. Any and all sub- 

 stances, whether of vegetable, animal or mineral origin, even though 

 such substances are not harmful to man or to other animals, which are 

 not a part of the drugs as defined in the U. S. P., shall be considered as 

 adulterants, no matter whether accidentally present in excessive 

 amounts, or added in any quantities whatsoever, with the intent to 

 deceive. 



