Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
April,  1897. 
Parthenium  Hysterophorous. 
173 
CHEMICAL  COMPOSITION. 
The  writer's  analysis  of  the  plant  in  1889  showed,  beside  such 
normal  plant  constituents  as  starch,  wax,  gum  and  mineral  salts,  the 
presence  of  an  active  principle  to  which  the  bitterness  of  the  plant 
is  due.    It  was  obtained  from  the  alcoholic  extract  of  the  drug  by 
Fig.  4..    United  anthers,  magnified  about  150  diameters. 
evaporation  to  dryness,  solution  in  water  and  extraction  by  agitation 
of  the  aqueous  liquid  with  chloroform,  and  is  supposed  to  corres- 
pond to  the  parthenine  of  Tovar,  as  well  as  to  Ulrici's  parthenicine, 
all  the  products  being  in  a  more  or  less  impure  form.  Tovar's  origi- 
nal article  has  not  yet  been  procured,  despite  efforts  in  that  direction, 
and  the  reference  in  the  Pharmaceutical  Journal  gives  no  inkling 
