12 
Podophyllum  peltatum  Linne. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
^     January,  19 18. 
of  the  official  drug.  The  ash  content  of  the  rhizome  and  roots  com- 
bined will  average  about  5  per  cent,  in  the  samples  examined. 
Since  the  limit  of  ash  in  podophyllum  is  specified  as  a  test  for  doubt- 
ful samples  it  will  be  well  to  bear  in  mind  that  the  drug  examined 
in  this  investigation  was  absolutely  authentic  and  yet  had  an  ash 
content  much  above  the  specified  3  per  cent. 
Resin. — The  resin  was  extracted  from  each  sample  by  the 
method  outlined  in  Pharmacopoeia,  IX.  The  temperature  of  the 
water  used  was  uniformly  kept  at  6°  C,  and  all  precautions  were 
taken  to  handle  each  sample  in  the  same  manner.  In  no  case  did 
the  resin  coalesce  or  aggregate  into  lumps  during  drying  and  it 
was  not  essentially  necessary  to  powder  in  a  mortar,  although  each 
lot  was  thus  treated  in  order  to  make  it  absolutely  uniform.  The 
results  of  the  resin  determinations  are  given  in  Table  IV. 
Table  IV. 
Percentage  of  Resin  of  Podophyllum  in  Air-dried  Podophyllum  peltatum. 
Material. 
Lot  number. 
Resin  (per  cent.). 
*.  olor  of  resin. 
Rhizome  .... 
I 
6.15 
Greenish  yellow 
2 
6.00 
Light  greenish  yellow 
3 
4-57 
Yellow 
4 
3-6o 
Greenish  yellow 
5 
3-30 
Dark  greenish  yellow 
6 
4.22 
Roots  
la 
7.76 
Greenish  yellow 
2a 
7.10 
Light  greenish  yellow 
3a 
5-40 
4a 
3-30 
Greenish  yellow 
5<* 
4-15 
Light  greenish  yellow 
6a 
4.96 
From  the  results  tabulated  in  Table  IV  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
spring-collected  drug  yields  the  largest  percentage  of  resin.  At  this 
time  the  plants  were  just  sending  up  aerial  shoots  and  the  activity 
within  the  plant  cells  was  probably  at  a  maximum.  As  the  plant 
grows  the  resin  content  in  the  dry  material  lessens.  When  the  plant 
had  reached  its  maximum  growth  the  percentage  of  resin  present 
was  at  the  lowest  point.  An  increase  in  resin  is  noted  in  the  drug 
collected  after  the  plant  had  begun  to  die  away  in  the  fall. 
Recalculated  on  a  basis  of  green  weight  the  results  appear  in  a 
different  light.    The  recalculations  are  given  in  Table  V. 
1 
