Are Coffeine and Antipyrin in High Dilutions 

 Poisonous to Plants? 



BY 



S. Sawa. 



Many poisons show a stimulating action of some kind or 

 other when they are so highly diluted that any further injurious 

 action can not take place. Gamalcia 1 has observed that coffeine 

 exerts a stimulating action -on the growth of yeast and certain 

 bacteria. Since coffeine is trimethylxanthine and xanthine is 

 a constituent of the nucleoproteids of the protoplasm, I thought 

 it of interest to observe the action of coffeine in high dilution on 

 phaenogams. 



The first experiment was carried out with onion plants 

 which were placed in a solution of I p. mille of coffeine and antipy- 

 rine with and without the addition of nutrients. It was observed 

 that the plants remained alive for nearly four weeks. In both 

 solutions some new branches started but these developed much 

 better with antipyrijie than with coffeine. Coffeine proved 

 gradually to be a much more noxious compound than antipyrine, 

 and the primary leaves withered much sooner in the former 

 than in the latter case. 



The development after twenty-three days in the presence 

 of all mineral nutrients is seen in the following table giving the 

 measurements of the still living parts. 



1 Jahresbericht fur Thierchemie, 1896 p. 923. 



