CRUDE DRUGS. 465 



principle, B-methyl sesculetin, considerable starch and calcium 

 oxalate in the form of cryptocrystalline crystals. See also Hyo- 

 scyamus (p. 619), Belladonnse Folia (p. 620) and Stramonium 

 (p. 622). 



Allied Plants. — Mandragora or European mandrake is the 

 root of Atropa Mandragora. The drug occurs in fusiform, some- 

 what bifurcated pieces and contains two mydriatic alkaloids : man- 

 dragorine (isomeric with atropine) and an alkaloid resembling 

 hyoscyamine. 



LAPPA.— BURDOCK.— The root of Arctium Lappa and of 

 other species of Arctium (Fam. Compositse), biennial herbs (p. 

 394) indigenous to Europe and Northern Asia, and naturalized 

 in waste places in the United States and Canada (Fig. 92). The 

 root is collected in autvmin from plants of the first year's growth, 

 and carefully dried. 



Description. — Nearly cylindrical, slightly tapering, or broken 

 and split longitudinally into pieces, 10 to 20 cm. long, 5 to 20 mm. 

 in diameter; externally, bark dark brown, longitudinally wrinkled, 

 with few rootlets or rootlet-scars, crown somewhat annulate from 

 scars of bud-scales and sometimes surmounted by a soft, woolly 

 tuft of leaf-remains with i-celled, twisted hairs; fracture short, 

 horny when dry, tough when damp ; internally light brown, radi- 

 ate, bark 2 to 3 mm. thick, wood porous, cambium zone distinct ; 

 odor feeble; taste mucilaginous, slightly bitter. 



Old woody roots in which the pith is more or less obliterated 

 and which have been collected from the fruiting plant should be 

 rejected. 



Constituents. — Inulin about 45 per cent. ; a glucoside prob- 

 ably identical with that found in the seed, to which the name lappin 

 has been applied ; and about 0.4 per cent, of a fixed oil. 



PHYTOLACCA.— POKE ROOT.— The root of Phytolacca 

 decandra (Fam. Phytolaccaceae), a perennial herb (p. 265) 

 indigenous to Eastern North America, and naturalized in the 

 West Indies and Southern Europe (Fig. 139). The root is col- 

 lected in autumn and, after removal of the rootlets, cut into trans- 

 verse and longitudinal pieces and dried. 



Description. — Fusiform or nearly cylindrical, tapering, usu- 

 ally in longitudinal ribbon-like slices, 8 to 16 cm. long, 5 to 15 



30 



