Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Nov.,  1889. 
Senna  Pods. 
581 
possibly  pay  cultivators  to  grow  the  drug.  The  conclusion  of  these 
trial  shipments  has  been  to  prove  beyond  doubt  that  the  mode  of  gath- 
ering and  curing  the  leaves  exercises  a  very  decided  influence  on  the 
percentage  of  cocaine  yielded  by  them,  and  that  in  order  to  make  the 
cultivation  of  coca  a  paying  industry,  the  most  scrupulous  account 
must  be  taken  of  the  variety  of  leaves  grown,  the  time  for  gathering 
and  drying  the  crops,  and  the  mode  of  packing  and  ship- 
ment. But  if  these  conditions  are  carefully  kept  in  view,  we  should 
say  that  it  ought  to  pay  Java  and  Ceylon  planters  to  growT  coca  to  a 
moderate  extent,  not  as  a  chief  crop,  but  as  one  of  those  smaller  adjuncts 
to  their  staple  which,  though  not  yielding  riches  in  themselves,  are 
specially  useful  in  seasons  when  the  receipts  from  the  large  crops  show 
a  decided  falling-off. —  Chemist  and  Druggist,  Sept.  28,  p.  468. 
SENNA  PODS. 
By  E.  F.  Salmon,  Pharmaceutical  Chemist. 
In  the  Lancet  of  July  27,  1889,  appeared  a  "Note  on  the  Thera- 
peutic Action  of  Senna  Pods/'  written  by  Dr.  MacFarlane,  Exami- 
ner in  Forensic  Medicine,  University,  Glasgow.  My  attention  was 
directed  to  it  by  a  member  of  the  medical  profession,  who  requested 
me  to  procure  some  of  the  pods,  and  prepare  an  active  preparation  of 
the  same,  as  had  already  been  done  for  Dr.  Macfarlane  by  Mr.  Bor- 
land. This  I  did,  and  prepared  a  fluid  extract  which  has  since  been 
prescribed  and  used  with  very  satisfactory  results.  As  probably  other 
pharmacists  will  be  applied  to  on  the  same  subject,  the  following  notes 
may  be  of  interest : — 
The  active  purgative  principle  of  senna  is  cathartin,  which  is  a 
combination  of  cathartic  and  phosphoric  acids  with  magnesium  and 
calcium  bases ;  this  substance  may  be  thrown  out  of  an  aqueous 
solution  by  .alcohol,  first  adding  sufficient  to  throw  clown  the  gum, 
albumen,  etc.,  and  then  an  excess  to  precipitate  the  cathartin.1  Two 
comparative  experiments  showed  that  the  pods  are  richer  in  this  sub- 
stance than  the  leaves,  the  latter  yielding  2  and  the  former  2J  per 
cent,  when  treated  as  above.  In  addition  to  cathartin  there  is  found 
in  the  leaves  a  resinous  principle  and  a  volatile  oil ;  these  are  practi- 
cally absent  in  the  pods. 
1  Pliarmacographia,  p.  219. 
