N. O. SOLANAOE.E. 
OKI 
reticulate, uerved, purple. Capsule fin. diatn. Seeds ^in diam. 
(C. B. Clarke). 
Officinal in both Pharmacopeias. 
The Chemical results agreed with those obtained with the European plant, 
heaves, O - O02 ; seeds, 0'081 per cent, of total alkaloid.— [Bull. Imp. Inst. 1911]. 
The seeds yield about 85 per eent. of oil, which is yellow, slightly fluores- 
cent, somewhat viscous, and dries readily 
877 . H. muticus, Linn, h.f.b.i., iv. 245 . 
S yns. : — H. insanus, Stocks. 
Habitat : — West Punjab and Scinde. 
Erect coarse herbs. Stem l-3ft. Leaves 9-4in., pubescent or 
somewhat woolly. Cauline leaves petioled, ovate or oblong, 
entire toothed. Petioles f-3in. Lower flowers pedicelled. 
Lower pedicels in fruit f-lin. Calyx striate pubescent, fin., in 
fruit 1 by fin., funnel-shaped, ribbed, somewhat reticulate, 
villous or ultimatel glabrous. Calyx-teeth short-triangular, not 
acute in fruit, Corolla I -If in., lurid yellow or nearly white. 
Capsale fin. diam. Seeds 5 ^in. diam. 
Uses : — A common plant of Baluchistan, where it is known 
by the name of Kohi bung or Mountain Hemp. Its powerfully 
poisonous properties are well known, and it is stated to be 
smoked in small quantities by debauched faquirs, and to be 
used also for criminal purposes. The chief symptoms produced 
by it are dryness and constriction of the throat, and furious 
delirium (Stocks in Hooker’s Journ. of Bot., 1852. vol. iv., p. 
178). 
The alkaloid in this is chiefly, if not entirely, hyo3cyamine, 
which possesses mydriatic properties which can be very easily 
isolated. 
Similar to atropine is another well known mydriatic alkaloid of wide use, 
viz.: — hyoscyamine— which is obtainable from the Byoscyumus niger — the 
henbane of the English country lane. The writer recently had occasion 
to analyse sample of Indian Hyoscsamus (probably the Byoscyamus muticus 
—an allied species of the genus Byoscyamus) grown in the Punjab where 
large quantities of the plant occur in the wild state along the river sides. 
The assay showed the dried plant to contain the very high amount of 0'827 per 
cent, of mydriatic alkaloids. This is very much richer than the English 
