64 POWDERED VEGETABLE DRUGS 



wise the fraud is too readily detected. The amount added will depend 

 somewhat upon the judgment and intelligence of the sophisticator. 

 If he fears the detective powers of the pharmacist he will add only 

 small quantities (one to five per cent., or somewhat more). In other 

 instances he will not hesitate to add as much as fifty per cent., or 

 even more. It is generally quite difficult to estimate the amount of 

 the adulterant added. In the case of crude drugs it would be necessary 

 to go through the entire collection and carefully winnow out the foreign 

 substance or substances. This is a tedious task, but the results are 

 quite accurate. In the case of powdered drugs the matter becomes 

 still more difficult, as will be more fully explained in Chapter VI. 



2. Complete Substitution. 



This form of sophistication is not commonly practiced with 

 vegetable drugs, though it is not at all unusual in other departments of 

 pharmacy. It is recorded that nutmegs have been made of wood, 

 imitation coffee beans have been made of pressed clay, cloves of 

 roasted and pressed starch. For years Ruellia ciliosa has been largely 

 substituted for Spigelia. Poke root is a very common adulterant of 

 belladonna root. A mixture of tartar emetic and some inert vegetable 

 powder has been substituted for powdered ipecac, etc. But such 

 crude substitution is not commonly practiced. It is more usual to 

 substitute a closely related plant or plant part for the drug itself, 

 whether in the crude or powdered state. For instance, the western 

 senega is substituted for the southern variety; one variety of cinchona 

 for another; etc. 



III. SUBSTANCES EMPLOYED IN ADULTERATION 



The materials more usually employed in the adulteration of vege- 

 table drugs may be divided into two groups; those added to crude drugs 

 and powdered drugs and those which may be added to powders only. 

 The material employed does not necessarily give any indication whe- 

 ther or not the sophistication was accidental or intentional, though in 

 many instances it does give such evidence. For instance, if willow 

 leaves and poplar leaves are found with tea we may safely conclude 

 that the sophistication was criminal, as even the most ignorant col- 

 lector can distinguish between tea leaves and willow leaves. If 

 starch or flour is found in a powder normally free from starch, we may 

 again safely conclude that the sophistication was criminal. The 

 presence of the first year leaves of digitalis among the second year 

 leaves may be unintentional. 



