408 
Medicinal  Plant  Supplies. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
June,  19 18. 
last  fall  there  was  received  at  the  University  of  Washington  approxi- 
mately 1,200  pounds  of  dried  digitalis  leaves  collected  by  patriotic 
organizations  in  western  Washington  and  donated  for  use  in  army 
medical  supplies.  A  large  quantity  has  also  been  collected  at  the 
University  of  Oregon.  In  addition  to  these  supplies  collections 
have  been  made  during  the  past  two  or  three  years  independently  in 
the  State  of  Washington,  and  I  understand  that  during  the  season 
of  191 7,  because  of  the  scarcity  of  labor  and  high  prices  paid  for  the 
same,  it  was  very  difficult  to  secure  enough  digitalis  to  fill  the  orders 
which  had  been  received  from  various  manufacturers  of  pharma- 
ceutical products  in  the  United  States.  It  is  practically  impossible 
at  the  present  time  to  depend  upon  local  collectors,  so  that  one  is 
under  the  necessity  of  hiring  laborers  and  sending  them  into  the  dis- 
tricts in  which  digitalis  is  known  to  grow  in  abundance. 
We  are  developing  our  natural  resources  as  never  before.  There 
are  fortunately  very  few  drugs  which  have  gone  into  what  is  called 
the  "scarce  class."  These  include  jalap  and  scammony,  both  of 
which  enter  into  the  composition  of  compound  cathartic  pills.  Jalap 
is  obtained  from  plants  growing  in  the  Mexican  Andes  and  for  some 
years  back  the  supplies  have  been  hardly  adequate.  I  recently  ex- 
amined the  tubers  of  a  closely  related  plant  coming  from  Mexico 
which  gives  a  far  larger  yield  of  the  drastic  resin,  and  at  the  present 
time  it  seems  very  likely  that  we  can  obtain  supplies  for  all  imme- 
diate needs.  Scammony  root  comes  to  us  from  the  Levant  and 
there  is  none  upon  the  market  at  the  present  time.  Here  again  we 
are  rather  fortunate  in  being  able  to  procure  from  Mexico  the  root 
of  a  closely  related  species  which  contains  a  resin  having  practically 
the  same  therapeutic  properties  as  in  the  Levant  scammony  and  of 
this  Mexican  scammony  we  have  almost  unlimited  supplies. 
A  most  interesting  situation  has  developed  in  regard  to  styrax, 
the  official  article  coming  from  the  Levant  and  being  at  the  present 
time  unobtainable.  A  year  or  two  ago  the  market  price  of  the 
imported  styrax  was  between  six  and  seven  dollars  per  pound.  A 
similar  product  can  be  obtained  from  the  sweet  gum  tree,  Liquidam- 
bar  Styraciflua,  a  tree  which  is  common  throughout  the  entire  cen- 
tral and  eastern  United  States.  In  fact  at  the  present  time  an 
American  styrax  can  be  gathered  and  sold  at  a  profit  at  $1.50  per 
pound.  This  American  balsam  closely  resembles  the  Levant  article, 
and  for  some  purposes  seems  to  be  superior.  Liquid  petrolatum, 
commonly  known  as  "  mineral  oil,"  formerly  came  from  Russia, 
