PHARMACAL PLANTS AND THEIR CULTURE. 
13 
as unlikely of successful culture in California, may on careful and more 
extended trial do well, as ginger, cardamoms, cinchona, pilocarpus, 
ipecac, and others. 
7. Preparing Vegetable Drugs for the Market.— The following 
remarks are intended as mere suggestions which it is hoped will be 
found helpful in working out the most suitable methods applicable 
in California. 
The exact chemical constituency of many medical plants is as yet not 
fully understood and much research work along these lines is still to be 
done. This applies especially to plants bearing medicinally valuable 
alkaloids, glucosides, and other active constituents. It is also known 
that the amount of active constituents varies greatly during the vege- 
tative period and in plants from different localities, and it would be 
very desirable for the drug growers to make chemical analyses of the 
plants grown at intervals of about one or several months, in order to 
determine the exact period when the active constituents are most 
abundant and what plant parts are most active. Such work should, 
of course, be supplemented by a reference to the literature on analyses 
made of plants growing in other localities. 
The manner in which the drug is prepared also modifies the active 
constituents, quantitatively as well as qualitatively, for which reason the 
following suggestions are offered : 
Time of Collecting . — Drugs should be collected at the time when the 
active principle or constituent is present in maximum quantity. Unfor- 
tunately, this period is as yet not accurately determined for many 
plants. The chemical analyses above referred to should be applied in 
order to clear up the uncertainties. 
Naturally, the time of collecting depends upon the part of the plant 
to be used. In a general way it may be stated that the drug is collected 
when the plant organ or part to be used medicinally has reached its full 
development. Flowers, floral parts, fruits and seeds are collected at the 
time of maturity ; not before or after maturity. There are, however, 
numerous exceptions. The flowers of pale rose, lavendula, orange, 
santonica, the fruits of the poppy, elaterium, vanilla, pepper, allspice 
and cubeb, are collected before maturity. Most leaves and leafy herbs 
are collected at the time of flowering or shortly before that period. 
Generally leaves and herbs not having a strong odor, as aconite, bella- 
donna, verbascum, stramonium, digitalis, hyoscvamus and others, are 
to be gathered shortly before blossoming, while aromatic leaves and 
herbs, as absinthium, tansy, the mints, pennyroyal and rosemary should 
be collected at the time of blossoming. 
With drugs represented by subterranean organs, as roots, rhizomes, 
tubers and bulbs, also the bark of trees and shrubs, the time of collecting 
is quite variable. The most suitable time for collecting such drugs is 
