76 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF QUEENSLAND. 
Royal and Linnean Societies of New South Wales. His purpose was 
to make as thorough a survey as possible. His methods were simple. To 
quote his own words: — 
“The method which I followed in selecting plants for examination 
was based on the fact that most of the active known drugs are bitter, and 
consisted in tasting the bark, or occasionally other parts of the plant, 
when if these were found bitter, acrid or pungent, a certain amount of 
the plant was collected for experiments. ’ ’ “ About a thousand plants were 
so examined and a large proportion were astringent. One hundred and 
fifty plants selected because they had some decided taste, or reputed to 
be poisonous, were examined as follows: — 
“An extract of the dried parts was made of each by maceration in 
dilute alcohol, and evaporation of the tincture in the sun or over a water- 
bath. One to three grains of extract suspended in a few minims of 
water were injected under the skin of a frog; if no symptoms manifested 
themselves within an hour or so, the plant whose extract was under 
observation was considered inert.” In this way in the first three years 
of his work he was able to show that plants of fifteen genera — 
Crypt ocarya, Zanthoxylwn, Daphnandra, Entada, Erythrina, 
Excaecaria, Flindersia, Hernandia, Harpullia, Acacia, Arckidendron, 
Cerbera, Colocasia, Nicotiana, and Pongamia — exhibited toxic 
properties. 
Bancroft next examined some New Zealand plants and records two 
species of peculiar interest, Laurelia Novae-Z ealandiae (the “pukatea”) 
and Myoporum laetum. His remarks on them serve to show the w r orth 
of his observations. Of the pukatea he says : ‘ ‘ An alcoholic extract was 
made, which when injected into frogs caused rapid death. A few 
spasmodic jerks of the hind limbs were noticed before the animal became 
flaccid. The muscles, motor nerves and heart were apparently influenced. 
A solution of the extract in water gave the reactions of an alkaloid.” 
In spite of this clear statement Aston was able to say in 1909: “In 
the annual report of the New Zealand Department of Agriculture for 
1901, ‘Attention was first drawn by the author to the occurrence of 
alkaloids in the bark of the pukatea.’ ” Aston isolated three alkaloids 
which have been further investigated by Barger, Girandet and Schlittler. 
These Lauraceous and Myoporaceous alkaloids are structurally related 
to the alkaloids of the Fumariaceae. Of Myoporum laetum , Bancroft 
briefly remarks that preparations of this plant are poisonous, that the 
plant contains an oil and a wax, and that the oil. at any rate, is 
poisonous to frogs. The poisonous nature of the oil of the Myoporum 
species, which have long been known to be stock poisons, has recently 
been confirmed by observations in New Zealand and by observations on 
M. acuminatum in progress here. Earlier experimenters had failed to 
detect the poisonous principle, although the nature of this is clearly 
indicated in Bancroft’s observations. Others, however, were directly 
stimulated by Bancroft’s observations to carry out further chemical and 
pharmacological investigations. Rennie and Turner investigated 
Stephania hernandii folia and claimed to have isolated therefrom picro- 
toxin, a claim which needs confirmation. They also confirmed that the 
plant contains an alkaloid with a strong convuisant action. Maiden and 
Smith worked on C anssa ovata var. stolonif era and obtained an impure 
cardiac glycoside which they named carissin. Some mystery is attached 
to this plant, as the variety stolonif era has never been satisfactorily 
