910 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



the same point. Flower pale, purple, tinged with yellow or green, 

 fin. diam., single or drooping, usually axillary stalks. Calyx 

 lobed nearly to the base. Segments leaf-like. Corolla bell- 

 shaped ; lobes 5, short, broad, spreading. Base of filaments 

 hairy, dilated, covering the ovary. Ovary 2-celled. Style longer 

 than the Corolla; stigma green. Berry globose, -fin. diam., 

 purple black, surrounded at base by the enlarged spreading 

 Calyx-leaves, a little more acuminate in the Himalayan plant 

 than in the European. 



Use : — Officinal in both Pharmacopasias. 



The following report has been received from the Economic Botanist to the 

 Botanical Survey of India, to whom sun-dried roots of Atropa Belladonna, 

 grown at the Kutchery garden, Naini Tal, were submitted : — 



"... The roots consisted of two kinds, vis., from one-year-old plants 

 and from two-year-old plants, and were registered respectively No. 34375 and 

 No. 34376. The alkaloid was estimated in each sample of root and it was 

 found to occur to the extent of 0'4 per cent, in that from the one-year-old 

 plants and 45 per cent, in that from the two-year-old plants. Belladonna 

 roots obtained from Europe and used in British medicinal preparation con- 

 tains from *2 to *6 per cent, of total alkaloids. The roots grown in Naini Tal 

 are therefore of good average quality and are suitable for use in the Medical 

 Store Departments of India." 



Considering the fact that the soil in which these plants were grown 

 cannot by any means be regarded as good, the report that the roots are of 

 good average quality is most encouraging, and fully justifies the experiments 

 being made on a more extensive scale. 



In better soil, which is easily obtainable in the Raragarh neighbourhood, 

 I believe that far heavier yields and a considerably higher percentage of 

 alkaloid will be obtained. 



The Naini Tal results worked out as follows : — 



Belladonna roots— 1 year old ... 3,570 lbs. per acre (alkaloid 0'4 per cent). 



Do. do. 2 year old ...3,545 ,, „ (alkaloid 0'45 per cent). 



From the above it will be noticed that although the percentage of alkaloid 

 was far greater in the two-year old roots the quantity harvested was actually 

 less. The reason for this I am unable at present to explain beyond the fact 

 that it was probably due to the plants having been grown in poor soil. 



A point that should not be lost sight of is the ease with which this drug 

 can be grown and the imperviousuess of the crop to insect pests and animal 

 life. A good stock of acclimatized seed has been saved from both Naini Tal 

 and Douglas Dale grown plants. The roots of the Douglas Dale grown plants 

 rot during the rains, but seed, which is of a lighter colour than that produced 

 in Naini Tal, has been saved. 



Belladonna root is at present obtained from England by the Medical Stores 



