160 
PH A RMA CO GNOSY. 
loids, of which the most important is sanguinarine ; 
the yield is about 1 per cent, and it crystallizes in col- 
orless needles and yields reddish salts with nitric and 
sulphuric acids ; the other alkaloids include chelery- 
thrine, which forms yellowish salts, protopine also 
found in opium, and /3-homochelidonine which, like 
the last two alkaloids, is found in Chelidonium. In 
addition, the drug contains a reddish resin, several 
organic acids and starch. 
COLCHICI COIOIIS (Colchicum Corm). 
The corm of Colchicum autumnale (Fam. Liliacese), a 
pei’ennial bulbous plant, native of and growing in 
moist meadows and pastures of England, Southern and 
Middle Europe and Northern Africa. The corm is 
collected in early summer before the flowering period, 
deprived of the membranous, scaly coat, cut into 
transverse pieces, and dried at a temperature below 
65° C. The commercial supply is obtained from Eng- 
land and Germany. 
Description. — Obconical, with a groove on one side, 
sometimes with fragments of the flower-stalk, usually 
in transverse, reniform sections from 15 to 20 mm. 
long, about 12 mm. wide and 3 to 5 mm. thick; ex- 
ternally dark brown, longitudinally wrinkled ; fracture 
short, mealy ; internally light brown, with numerous 
circular groups of fibrovascular tissue ; odor slight ; 
taste bitter and acrid. 
Constituents. — An amorphous alkaloid, colchicine, 
about 0.5 per cent. ; two resins, considerable starch, 
ash about 2'5 per cent. 
SCILLA (Squill). 
The fleshy scales of the bulb of Urginea Scilla (Fam. 
Liliacese), a perennial herb indigenous to the Mediter- 
