40 AMERICAN MEDICINAL BARKS. 



Collection, prices, and uses. — The collecting season for cascara opens about 

 the end of May or early in June and closes about the end of August, just before 

 the rainy season sets in, as bark collected after exposure to wet weather is 

 difficult to cure properly. 



After the strips of bark have been removed from the trees, they are generally 

 strung on wires to dry, care being taken not to expose the inner surface to the 

 sun, the object being to retain the yellow color, as the action of the sunlight 

 tends to darken the color, an undesirable result, inasmuch as it lowers the 

 market price. During the drying process the strips curl up, forming quills, and 

 when sufficiently dried these are cut or broken up into smaller pieces. 



Several years are generally required after collection to properly age the bark 

 for medicinal purposes, and the United States Pharmacopoeia directs that it 

 should not be used until at least one year after it has been gathered. Some 

 crude-drug dealers undertake the " aging " of the bark themselves rather than 

 leave it to collectors. 



Many trees are annually destroyed in the collection of cascara sagrada, as 

 they are usually peeled to such an extent that no new bark is formed. It has 

 been estimated that one tree furnishes approximately 10 pounds of bark, and 

 granting a crop of 1,000,000 pounds a year, 100,000 trees are thus annually 

 destroyed, and the world's consumption is said to be about 2,000,000 pounds a 

 year. 



The price at present paid to collectors for cascara sagrada varies from 3 to 

 4£ cents a pound. On account of the fact that cascara sagrada requires several 

 years' aging before use, a shortage in the crop is not immediately felt. 



Cascara sagrada is a most valuable laxative, differing from other drugs of 

 this character in that it tones up the entire intestinal tract, making long-con- 

 tinued dosing or gradually increasing dosage unnecessary. 



COTTON. 

 Gossypium hirsutum L. (" Gossypium lierbaeeum L.") 



Species. — According to the United States Pharmacopoeia, cotton-root bark is 

 obtained from "Gossypium herbaceum Linne," or from "other cultivated 

 species of Gossypium." 



For years the name Gossypium herbaceum has been used in botanical and 

 other works as applying to American cotton, whereas it is really a name belong- 

 ing to an Old World species, known as Levant cotton, cultivated in India and 

 also in southern Europe, and it is stated that the American species evidently 

 received the appellation hcrbaceum\ as a result of wrong identification by early 

 American authors, and the assumption that it originated from European seed. 



American Upland cotton is the type most commonly cultivated in the South, 

 from Virginia to Oklahoma and Texas, and this with its hundred or more 

 recognized horticultural varieties all belong to one species, namely, Gossypium 

 hirsutum L., & and not to G. herbaceum, and as practically all of the supply of 

 cotton-root bark of the United States is obtained in the United States, it can 

 safely be asserted that Gossypium hirsutum L., and not G. herbaceum L., is 

 the principal source of the bark found in the commerce of our country. 



a Dewey, L. H. The Identity of American Upland Cotton. Science, n. s., 

 vol. 19, p. 337. 1904. 



h Dewey, L. H. Principal Commercial Plant Fibers. Yearbook, U. S. Dept. 

 of Agriculture, 1903, p. 388. 

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