BROOM TOPS 



195 



off from the stems when dried, and the dry drug therefore frequently 

 contains but few. 



The bright yellow, fragrant, papilionaceous flowers are borne on 

 solitary, axillary peduncles, and succeeded by oblong, flattened 

 legumes with hairy margins. 



When fresh, the flowering plant has an agreeable odour which, 

 however, disappears on drying. The taste is bitter and unpleasant. 



Constituents. The chief consti- 

 tuents of broom are the liquid 

 volatile alkaloid, sparteine, and 

 an indifferent, yellow, crystalline 

 substance, scoparin ; in addition 

 to these a crystalline, volatile 

 alkaloid, genisteine, and a non- 

 volatile alkaloid, sarothamnine, have 

 been isolated from it. 



Sparteine, C 15 H 26 N 2 , has been obtained 

 as a colourless, viscid oil (b. pt. 325) 

 forming crystallisable salts of which the 

 sulphate has been used medicinally. 

 It is present in largest proportion in 

 March (0*45 per cent.) and smallest in 

 August (0-15 per cent.). 



Scoparin belongs to the quercetin 

 group. 



Genisteine, C 16 H 28 N 2 has been isolated 

 from commercial sparteine. 



Uses. Broom is largely used as 

 a diuretic in dropsy, an action 

 which is due to the scoparin it con- 

 tains. Sparteine exhibits physio- 

 logically a close resemblance to coniine, weakening the heart and 

 depressing nerve cells. 



FIG. 104. Broom, flowering branch. 

 (Maisch.) 



HEMLOCK HERB 



(Herba Conii, Folia Conii) 



Source, &C. The common or spotted hemlock, Conmm maculatum, 

 Linne (N.O. Umbelliferce), is a biennial plant widely spread through- 

 out temperate Europe, and generally distributed over Great Britain. 

 It was in all probability the plant employed by the Greeks in the 

 preparation of poisonous draughts, and was much used in Anglo- 

 Saxon medicine, but latterly has lost much of its reputation owing 

 to the uncertain action of preparations made from it. The herb 

 is cultivated for medicinal use, but wild plants are also collected. 



