e 
14 BULLETIN 824, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
(266) lists C. leucanthemum and P. parthenium as plants whose flowers 
were used in medicine by the natives of Michigan in the fifties. Sato 
(236) speaks of insect powder (made from flowers of O. cinerarizx- 
folium) as being used in medicine. Riley (225) cites a case in which 
insect powder was copiously rubbed on a dog, as a result of which 
the animal became sick, being affected in the locomotive organs 
very much as insects are. Carruthers (45) states that P. inodorum 
is credited with producing lasting mjury to the digestive organs of 
stock by damaging the lining of the stomach and causing death 
when eaten in large quantities. Coquillet (55) reports that horses 
fed upon the dried stems of the P. cinerarizfolium plant appeared to 
relish 1t very much, and were not injured by it. In 1880 Sayre (240) 
showed the toxic action of insect powder made from the dow ete of 
P. roseum upon tadpoles. Fujitani (89) and Reeb (214) record 
experiments made upon frogs, fish, dogs, and other animals with 
what they regarded as the active principle of Pyrethrum flowers. 
These tests, however, were made with extracts of the flowers and 
after certain chemical treatment, so that the results obtained are not 
strictly comparable with the action of insect powder itself. Zeigler 
(S34) tested the action of the active principles of C. cinerarizfolium 
(extracted with ether and the solvent allowed to evaporate without 
heat) upon ants, cotton-boll weevils, frogs, turtles, guinea pigs, 
rabbits, and dogs. The active constituents of insect flowers were 
toxic to cold-blooded animals when administered by mouth as well as 
by injection. To warm-blooded animals, however, they were toxic 
only when injected intravenously. 
ADULTERATION OF INSECT POWDER 
Insect powder appears to have been extensively adulterated from 
the time 1t first entered into commerce. 
In 1851 Koch (161) noted that in Transcaucasia Persian insect 
powder is adulterated with flowers of Pyrethrum corymbosum and 
other similar plants, and in Germany with chamomile. De Visiani 
(67), in 1854, mentioned the flowers of the common chamomile, 
Anthemis cotula, A. arvensis, and Spartium junceum as adulterants. 
eNoodt (205), in 1858, stated that producers, in order to satisfy the 
creat demand for insect powder, grind not only flowers, but also 
stems and leaves, thereby detracting from the quality. He reports 
that German merchants also were in the habit of mixing fresh con- 
sionments with old goods which had deteriorated with age. Schenck 
(242), in 1859, noted the use of German chamomile as an adulterant. 
In 1861 Willemot (294) said that the numerous adulterations 
which insect powder imported into France between 1850 and 1860 
had undergone prevented the public from appreciating its efficacy. 
He mentioned the following as having been found in various powders: 
Sumac powder, jalap, cockle of Levant, nux vomica, and arsenic. 
Abel (1) reports that Persian insect powder was adulterated with 
fleabane and chamomile flowers at the time of its introduction to the 
American market, shortly before 1860. | 
Schlotshauber (247), in 1862, found the Persian poms to contain 
a variety of Pyrethrum corymbosum W., P. tenuifolium Tenore, and 
a variety of Anthemis arvensis Linn. Landerer (167, 168), in 1875- 
1877, mentioned the following as adulterants: Anthemis cotula, 
