568 BOTANY AND PHARMACOGNOSY. 



which crystalHzes in needles; y-coNiCEiNE, which is a colorless, 

 oily alkaloid with a disagreeable odor, and i8 times more poison- 

 ous even than coniine; volatile oil, fixed oil, starch, calcium 

 oxalate, and yields about 6 per cent, of ash. 



Coniine is naturally combined in the drug with organic acids, 

 from which it is liberated on treatment with alkalies, and may be 

 readily extracted from the mixture by means of ether. WTien 

 pure, coniine is a colorless, nearly odorless liquid and forms a 



Fig. 248, Cross section of a mericarp of conium: c, c, commissural surface; e, por- 

 tion without secondary ribs; o, portion showing slight development of secondary rib; 

 o^, secondary rib; v, fibrovascular bundle of pericarp (m); t, t^, layers containing coniine; 

 a, endosperm: b, tissues of the embryo. — After Fliickiger. 



number of crystalline salts. On the addition of concentrated sul- 

 phuric acid to coniine the latter is colored blood red and after- 

 wards green. The disagreeable odor in commercial coniine, as 

 well as in conium, is due to the alkaloid coniceine. 



Allied Drugs. — The entire plant of Conium maculatum 

 (Fig. 170) is official in several pharmacopoeias. It probably con- 

 tains the same constituents as the fruit, but in smaller amounts. 

 The root contains 0.018 to 0.047 per cent, of total alkaloids; the 

 stems 0.064 per cent.; the' leaves 0.187 P^r cent, and the flowers 

 and flower stalks 0.236 per cent. 



