SEMEN STRAMONII. 4G1 



SEMEN STRAMONII. 

 Stramoniu7)i Seeds; F. Semences de Straitioine; G. Stechapfelsamev . 



Botanical Origin — Datura Stramonium L., see preceding article. 



Description — The spiny, ovoid capsule of stramonium opens at the 

 summit in four regvilar valves. It is bilocular, with each cell incom- 

 pletely divided into two, and contains a large number (about 400) of 

 flattened, kidney-shaped seeds. The seeds are blackish or dark brown, 

 about 2 lines long and i a line thick, thinning ofi' towards the hilum 

 which is on the straighter side. The surface of the seed is finely pitted 

 and also marked with a much coarser series of shallow reticulations or 

 rugosities. A section parallel to the faces of the seed exhibits the 

 long, contorted embryo, following the outline of the testa, and bedded 

 in the oily white albumen. The cylindrical form of the embryo is seen 

 in a transverse section of the seed. 



The seeds have a bitterish taste, and when bruised a disagreeable 

 odour. When the entire seeds are immersed in dilute alcohol, they 

 afford a tincture displaying a beautiful green fluorescence, turning 

 yellow on addition of ammonia. 



Microscopic Structure — The testa is formed of a row of radially 

 extended, thick-walled cells. They are not of a simply cylindrical 

 form, but their walls are sinuously bent in and out in the direction of 

 their length. Viewed in a direction tanorential to the surface, the cells 

 appear as if indented one into the other. Towards the surface of the 

 seed the cell-walls are elevated as dark brown tubercles and folds, 

 gi\'ing to the seed its reticulated and pitted surface. The albumen and 

 embryo exhibit the usual contents, namely fatty oil and albuminoid 

 substances.^ 



Chemical Composition — The active constituent of stramonium 

 seeds is the highly poisonous alkaloid Datu vine, of which they afford only 

 about iV P^i' cent., while the leaves and roots contain it in still smaller 

 proportion." Daturine was discovered in 1833 by Geiger and- Hesse, 

 and regarded as identical with atropine by A. von Planta (18.50), who 

 found it to have the same composition as that alkaloid. The two bodies 

 exhibit the same relations as to solubility and fusing point (88-90° C.) ; 

 and they also agree in crystallizing easily. The experiments of Schroff 

 (1852), tending to show that although daturine and atropine act in the 

 same manner, the latter has twice the poisonous energy of the former, 

 raised a further question as to the identity of the two alkaloids. Poehl 

 (1876) also stated solutions of daturine to be levogyrate, those of atro- 

 pine being devoid of rotatory power. From the observations of Erhard 

 (1866), it would appear that the crystalline form of some of the salts 

 of atropine and daturine is different. In stramonium seeds daturine 

 appears to be combined with malic acid. The seeds yielded to Cloez 

 (1865) 29 per cent, of ash and 25 per cent of fixed oil. 



Uses — Stramonium seeds are prescribed in the form of extract or 

 tincture as a sedative or narcotic. 



^ We have not seen W. G. Mann, Onder- - Giinther in Wiggers and Husemann's 



zoel- van het zand van Datura Slramoiiitim, Jahresberkht for 1869. 54. 

 Enschede, 1875. 



