STAVESACRE 145 



all the delphinine ; these may be removed from the oil by shaking 

 it with an aqueous solution of tartaric acid. The drug affords from 

 10 to 13 per cent, of ash. 



Uses. Stavesacre seeds are extremely poisonous, delphinine and 

 delphinoidine resembling aconitine in action, but being weaker ; the 

 seeds are used only as a parasiticide to kill pediculi, chiefly in the form 

 of the official ointment, the expressed oil, the powdered seeds, or an 

 acid aqueous extract containing the alkaloid.s. Delphinine has also 

 been employed similarly to aconitine both internally and externally 

 for neuralgia, &c. 



Note. Delphinium Consolida, Linne, contains three alkaloids apparently 

 not identical with those of D. Staphisagria. Delphinium Ajacis, Linne, contains 

 ajacine and ajaconine. The large size of stavesacre seeds distinguishes them 

 from the seeds of other species of Delphinium. 



BLACK MUSTARD SEEDS 



(Semina Sinapis Nigrse) 



Source, &C. The black mustard plant, Brassica sinapioides, Roth 

 (B. nigra, Koch, N.O. Cruciferce), an erect annual plant attaining a 

 height of 1 metre or more, is largely cultivated in Holland, England, 

 Italy, Germany, and other countries. The fruits are smooth, erect, 

 appressed siliquas, which dehisce, when ripe, by both sutures, 

 disclosing about ten or twelve minute dark seeds. These are 

 separated when ripe, and dried. 



Description. Black, or, as they are sometimes termed, brown or 

 red, mustard seeds are of a dark reddish brown or greyish brown 

 colour, sometimes nearly black, and are frequently partially covered 

 with very thin, whitish scales (dried mucilage from the epidermis, 

 probably the result of damp). They are nearly spherical or flattened- 

 ovoid in shape and about 1 mm. in diameter. Under the lens the 

 surface appears minutely pitted, and the hilum can be distinguished 

 as a paler point. 



Although the seeds are hard, the seed-coats are thin and brittle. 

 The kernel is greenish yellow and oily, and consists of the two folded 

 cotyledons embracing the small radicle. The position of cotyledons 

 and radicle can be well seen by cutting a seed in halves midway 

 between the hilum and the apex. After the seed has been soaked 

 in water, during which it surrounds itself with mucilage, the seed-coats 

 can be easily removed, disclosing the cotyledons folded over and 

 incumbent upon the radicle ; there is no endosperm, the seeds being 

 exalbuminous. 



Black mustard seeds, even when powdered, have no marked odour. 

 The taste is at first bitter, but rapidly becomes strongly pungent, 



10 



