THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
SEPTEMBER,  1889. 
THE  ORIGIN  OF  FALSE  SENEGA  ROOT. 
By  John  M.  Maisch. 
When  in  1876  Mr.  Wm.  Saunders  called  attention  to  a  suspicious 
senega  root  {Proceed.  Am.  Phar.  Assoc.,  1876,  p.  661),  which  after- 
wards became  known  as  white  and  false  senega,  I  stated  my  belief,  that 
it  came  from  a  species  of  Poly  gala,  though  not  from  Pol.  Senega.  It 
disappeared  from  our  market  shortly  afterwards  (Proc.  1877,  p.  525); 
but  through  the  aid  of  the  late  W.  H.  Crawford,  (Ibid.  1881,  p.  522), 
I  had  been  enabled  to  trace  it  to  the  neighborhood  of  Springfield, 
Mo.,  where  it  was  said  to  have  been  collected.  All  subsequent  efforts 
to  ascertain  the  locality  of  collection,  or  to  procure  a  living  plant  with 
root  attached  proved  of  no  avail,  though  from  time  to  time  the  same 
root  was  met  with  in  commerce.  In  1881  {Amer.  Jour.  Phar.,  1881, 
p.  388),  on  receiving  from  Dr.  J.  R.  Gunn,  of  Alabama,  a  specimen 
of  Polygala  Boykinii,  Nuttall,  I  regarded  it  as  the  parent  plant  of 
the  false  senega,  notwithstanding  most  of  the  latter  roots  were  larger 
in  dimensions  than  the  root  of  the  plant  received. 
The  white  senega,  examined  microscopically  by  Thos.  Greenish, 
{Phar.  Jour,  and  Tr.,  Sept.  7,  1873  ;  Am.  Jour.  Phar.,  1873,  p.  523) 
was  believed  by  him  to  be  a  true  senega ;  but  Geo.  Goebel  (A.  Jour. 
Ph.,  1881,  p.  322)  pointed  out  some  striking  structural  and  chemical 
differences. 
That  this  white  keelless  root  is  derived  from  Polygala  Senega  has 
been  maintained  by  many  dealers ;  and  this  belief  has  doubtless  been 
strengthened  by  papers  on  commercial  senega  by  J.  U.  and  C.  G. 
Lloyd,  who  have  made  a  special  study  of  the  indigenous  medicinal 
plants.  In  Proc.  Am.  Phar.  A.,  1881,  p.  453,  and  in  Phar.  Rund- 
schau, New  York,  1889,  p.  86,  they  describe  the  different  commercial 
varieties  of  (southern  or  western,  and  northern)  senega,  all  of  which 
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