LYCOPODIUM 



407 



Uses. Lycopodium is sometimes used as a dusting powder for 

 excoriated surfaces and for preventing the mutual adhesion of pills. 



Adulteration. Lycopodium is frequently adulterated, the following 

 substances, all of which are easily detected by microscopical 

 examination, having been found : potato starch, maize starch 

 slightly roasted and coloured, sulphur, powdered colophony, powdered 

 amber, dextrin, powdered boxwood, powdered talc, and pollen of 

 various kinds, especially that of coniferous trees, which has been 

 actually sold (in Austria) under the name of Lycopodium hungaricum. 

 Pine pollen consists of ovoid grains bearing an enlargement on each 

 side. The drug should not yield more than 4 per cent, of ash (absence 

 of mineral matter). Sulphur may be 



detected by its solubility in carbon lj ^' " 



disulphide. 



a 



FIG. 226. Hop. a, strobile of 

 the Hop, natural size ; 6, 

 bract enfolding at its base 

 a small fruit, and show- 

 ing lupulin glands, natural 

 size ; c, fruit magnified. 

 (Tschirch.) 



LUPULIN 



(Lupulinum) 



Source, &C. Lupulin consists of the 

 glands obtained from the strobiles of 

 HumulusLupulus, Linne (N.O. Urlicacece.) 

 The cone-like, collective fruits of the 

 hop (see p. 128) are known as strobiles, 

 and consist of leafy stipules and bracts, 

 the latter enfolding at their base minute 

 fruits. Both the bases of the bracts and 

 the fruits (to a less degree the stipules) 

 are sprinkled over with bright shining 

 glands which when fresh have a pale 

 greenish yellow colour, which darkens as 

 the hops are kept. These glands can be separated more or less 

 completely by shaking and beating the ripe hops, and they are also 

 detached during the manipulations to which hops are subjected in 

 gathering and drying, and collect together with sand, debris, and 

 other extraneous matter, on the floors of the hop-kilns. By 

 sweeping the floors and sifting the sweepings, much, if not all, 

 commercial lupulin is obtained. 



Description. Commercial lupulin is a granular, brownish yellow 

 powder with a strong, hop-like odour and bitter, aromatic taste. 

 Examined under the microscope it is seen to be composed of a number 

 of glands, each of which consists of a hemispherical layer of cells, 

 the cuticle of the concave surface of which has been raised, dome- 

 like, by the secretion of oil or oleo-resin between it and the cell-wall. 

 When burst by pressure, which is very easily effected, the gland 

 discharges a granular oily liquid. 



