CRUDE DRUGS. 627 



Leaf lanceolate or elliptical ; apex acute ; base sessile or 

 amplexicaul ; margin entire or spinosely toothed ; upper surface 

 light green or yellowish-green, covered with resin and with occa- 

 sional black disks of a species of Piiccinia; under surface grayish- 

 green, somewhat resinous ; texture somewhat coriaceous, brittle 

 when dry. Heads many-flowered, globular or truncate-conical > 

 about I to 2 cm. in diameter, with numerous lanceolate-acumin- 

 ate, imbricate and resinous involucral bracts; torus flat, deeply 

 pitted ; ray-flowers brownish-yellow and pistillate ; tubular flowers 

 yellowish-brown, perfect. Akenes slightly curved, somewhat 

 compressed, about 3 mm. long, and i- to 2-dentate or auriculate- 

 bordered at the summit. Odor aromatic ; taste aromatic and bitter. 



Grindelia Squarrosa. — The leaves are linear, the akenes are 

 4-angled and more or less truncate at the apex. 



Constituents. — Resinous substances amounting to about 21 

 per cent., including a soft greenish resin soluble in petroleum 

 ether, a dark colored resin soluble in ether and a dark colored, 

 amorphous resin soluble in alcohol ; a laevo-rotatory sugar 

 1-glucose; tannin 1.5 per cent. ; a volatile oil having the character- 

 istic odor of the drug; and about 8 per cent, of ash. The drug 

 has also been reported to contain two glucosides, 0.8 per cent. 

 ( G. squarrosa) to 2 per cent. ( G. robusta) , somewhat resembling 

 the saponins in quillaja and senega ; and a bitter crystalline 

 alkaloid, grindeline. 



Substitutes. — Most of the drug on the market at the present 

 time appears to be derived from Grindelia camporiim, the common 

 Gum plant of California. The upper leaves are more or less 

 oblong or spatulate and the akenes are usually bi-auriculate at the 

 summit. 



The commercial drug is also derived from Grindelia cuneifolia 

 and its variety paludosa, growing in the marshes of tipper Califor- 

 nia. The leaves are cuneate and less coriaceous than those o£ 

 G. camporum, but the akenes are similar. 



Allied Plants. — Other species of Grindelia growing in the 

 Western United States and Mexico are similarly employed, as G. 

 hirsutula, the stems of which are purplish-red and pubescent; and 

 G. glutinosa, in which the leaves are glabrous, rounded at the 

 apex and the pappus 5- to 8-toothBd. 



