MEDICINAL PLANTS 



MEDICINAL PLANTS 



457 



MEDICINAL, CONDIMENTAL AND ARO- 

 MATIC PLANTS. Figs. 680-691. 



By R. H. True, and others. 



The growing of medicinal, condimental and aro- 

 matic plants in the United States has at present 

 hardly passed beyond the experimental or garden 

 stage, the demand for articles of these classes be- 

 ing in general met where possible by importation. 

 Nearly all native drug products are now obtained 

 from wild plants. The threatened disappearance of 

 some of the most valuable has led the government 

 and private experimenters to make efforts to put 

 some of these kinds under cultivation, e. g., golden 

 seal, ginseng, echinacea, Seneca snakeroot, Cas- 

 eara sagrada and others. Drug-plant cultivation 

 on a small scale has long been practiced in a few 

 places by the Shakers and others. At present, be- 

 ginnings- in this line have been made in several 

 places. Ginseng to a total value of about a million 

 dollars is grown in New York, Ohio, Kentucky, 

 Missouri and other states in the eastern half of the 

 country. Golden seal is grown sparingly over a 

 similar area. In California, some success has been 

 reached in growing insect flowers (Pyrethrum spe- 

 cies) on a commercial scale. 



Botanical source. 



For medicinal, condimental and aromatic prod- 

 ucts in America, many botanical families are 

 drawn on. The orchid family furnishes vanilla 

 pods ; the crowfoot family provides chiefly medici- 

 nal products, as aconite, golden seal and larkspur ; 

 the potato family is represented by drugs, as bella- 

 donna, jimson weed, tobacco, and among the condi- 

 ments by red pepper and paprika ; the mint family 

 furnishes a considerable number of products used 

 in medicine and also as flavoring agents, such as 

 sage (Fig. 680), marjoram, basil, peppermint, spear- 

 mint, hyssop, thyme, savory and pennyroyal. Cat- 

 nip, belonging to this family, has a medicinal value 

 only. The laurel family is especially rich in aro- 

 matic principles, and hence forms the group from 

 which many spices are obtained, notably allspice, 

 sweetbay, cloves and cinnamon. Sassafras and 

 camphor, products of this family, are of especial 

 medicinal value. The parsnip family shares this 

 tendency toward aromatic products which are fre- 

 quently used for both purposes : caraway, anise, 

 fennel, lovage and coriander. The mustard family 

 is also usually characterized by products of an aro- 

 matic or spicy nature, as mustard, white and black. 

 The spurge family is characteristically the source 

 of medicinal principles, usually purgative, as castor- 

 bean and croton seed. The great group of the com- 

 posites includes a variety of products, such as 

 dandelion, tansy, wormwood, elecampane and camo- 

 mile to represent the medicinal group, and tarragon 

 to represent the condimental use. 



Parts of plants used. 



Nearly all parts of the plant are made use of in 

 obtaining medicinal, condimental and aromatic sub- 

 stances. The entire root is used in dandelion, 

 burdock, belladonna, yellow dock, lovage, licorice 



ipecac, valerian and Seneca snakeroot ; the bark 

 of the root only in some cases, as in sassafras and 

 cotton-root bark. The entire herb, excluding larger 

 stems, is used in a number of small plants, as 

 lobelia, pennyroyal, thyme, peppermint, spearmint 

 and catnip ; the leaves in belladonna, henbane, 

 stramonium and foxglove ; the flowers only in 

 camomiles ; the unopened buds in cloves ; the fruits 

 complete, as in red peppers, chillies, allspice, 

 caraway, coriander, anise, fennel, black pepper 



Fig. 680. Sage plant one year old (adapted from 1903 Tear- 

 book, United States Department of Agriculture). 



and vanilla pods; the seed freed from the seed 

 vessel, as in mustard, poppy seed, castor-beans ar- 

 fenugreek. 



Time of harvesting medicinal, condimental and ar:' 

 matic products. 



In general, root products are usually collected 

 at the close of the growing season, when the plant 

 has filled the roots or rhizomes with reserve prod- 

 ucts, thus giving them a full appearance which 

 makes them more acceptable than the shrunken 

 material collected in the growing season. Early 

 spring, before the reserve products have been used 

 up, is also a good season to harvest. Some dealers 

 assert that the shrunken roots of some sorts are 

 preferable as containing a greater quantity of the 

 active principle than fall-dug roots. Perennial 

 roots are sometimes preferred at some special 

 stage of growth ; e. g., belladonna root gives the 

 best yield of alkaloids when two to four years 

 old ; if too old it becomes woody and the alkaloidal 

 content decreases. Marshmallow root is preferred 

 when about two years old. 



Leaves and herbs are, as a rule, collected when 

 the plant is in full flower. Many tests have shown 

 that at that stage the desirable principles, whether 

 alkaloids or volatile oils, are most abundant. In 

 the case of biennials, the leaves of the two years 

 are often not of equal value ; e.g., foxglove leaves 

 are taken the second year when the plant is in 

 flower. 



Flowers are sometimes collected in the bud stage, 

 as in insect flowers, or soon after the flower has 

 well opened, as in camomile. Calendula flowers are 

 harvested at this stage by pulling off the bright- 

 colored ray flowers, which alone make up the drug. 

 Fruits are frequently collected a little before they 



