TURPETH 357 



resin is turpethin. Turpeth resin has not yet been thoroughly 

 examined ; a-turpethein appears to be a rhamnoside ; /3-turpethein a 

 glucoside. Further research will probably show a complex composition 

 analogous to that of scammony resin, jalap resin, &c. 



Uses. The drug has long been used in India as a purgative. 



BELLADONNA IROOT 



(Radix Belladonnas) 



Source, &c. The deadly nightshade, or belladonna, Atropa 

 Belladonna, Linne (N.O. Solanacece) , is a tall branching herb, 

 attaining a height of 2 metres. It is widely distributed over central 

 and southern Europe ; in England it is confined chiefly to the 

 southern counties, but it is cultivated in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, 

 and elsewhere, and is grown for medic inal use in Germany also. 



Belladonna possesses a stout, branching, tap root which for 

 medicinal use should be collected in the autumn when about three 

 or four years old, cut into pieces, and carefully dried. The commercial 

 drug, much of which has been imported from Germany, though 

 probably collected in Hungary, is often of inferior quality. 



Description. Good root as found in commerce, occurs in pieces 

 varying from 15 to 20 cm. in length, and from 1 to 2 cm. in diameter. 

 It is of a pale greyish brown colour, finely wrinkled longitudinally, 

 usually cylindrical or gradually tapering, and often crowned with 

 the remains of hollow aerial stems. Sometimes the roots are cut 

 longitudinally to facilitate drying. They break with a short fracture, 

 and should be whitish and starchy internally. The section exhibits 

 a greyish bark separated by a dark line (cambium) from a whitish 

 central portion (wood) in which, especially near the cambium ring, 

 dark groups of vessels and fibres are scattered ; these groups, however, 

 seldom exhibit more than an indistinctly radiate arrangement except 

 close to the crown of the root, where one or more rings of radiate 

 yellowish wood may be found, the root passing imperceptibly into 

 rhizome. The bark is not fibrous, and adheres closely to the wood. 

 Most of the parenchymatous cells of both bark and wood contain 

 small compound starch-grains, and some of them are filled with 

 numerous very minute (sandy) crystals of calcium oxalate ; these 

 characters, visible only under the microscope, serve as additional 

 means of identifying belladonna root. 



Old roots become woody, and may then exhibit a prominently 

 radiate structure, whilst roots gathered in spring contain sugar and 

 but little starch, and hence show a shrunken outer surface and a dark, 

 spongy interior. In both cases the drug is believed to contain less 

 alkaloid than the young root collected in the autumn and possessing 



