4io 
Medicinal  Plant  Supplies. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
June,  1918. 
Up  until  recently  there  was  a  divided  opinion  in  this  country  as 
to  the  possibility  of  cultivating  medicinal  plants  and  placing  this 
industry  on  a  paying  basis.  There  has  been  a  prejudice  in  this 
country  against  seriously  considering  this  subject  in  a  practical 
manner.  No  doubt  some  of  this  sentiment  was  started  in  the 
interest  of  those  who  were  exporting  drugs  to  this  country.  For- 
tunately, however,  some  ten  or  twenty  years  ago  there  were  those 
who  recognized  that  our  supplies  of  native  plants  were  being  re- 
duced as  well  as  of  inferior  quality  and  attention  was  directed  to  the 
necessity  of  providing  for  future  supplies  through  drug  farming.  Of 
course,  sporadic  attempts  had  been  made  to  grow  medicinal  plants 
in  this  country,  but,  with  the  exception  of  ginseng,  the  attempts 
could  hardly  be  termed  successful.  Valerian  was  grown  in  Ver- 
mont, licorice  in  New  Jersey,  saffron  near  Lebanon,  Pa.,  but  these 
efforts  were  of  hardly  more  than  local  interest.  When  Mrs.  Gene 
Stratton  Porter  wrote  her  book  on  "  The  Harvester,"  she  struck  a 
psychological  moment  and  to  a  remarkable  degree  influenced  busi- 
ness men  to  consider  seriously  this  question.  In  the  meanwhile  ex- 
periments had  been  conducted  which  showed  that  cultivated  plants 
were  nearly  if  not  more  efficient  than  wild  plants,  and  with  the 
acceptation  of  this  theory  a  few  manufacturers  were  ready  to  farm 
a  certain  number  of  medicinal  plants.  Then  again  the  U.  S.  De- 
partment of  Agriculture  had  established  a  division  wholly  given  to 
the  investigation  of  this  question.  This  department  has  done  very 
much  in  an  experimental  way  and  through  counsel  to  direct  this 
work  and  assist  in  its  development.  Apart,  however,  from  all  these 
agencies  there  were  a  few,  as  A.  M.  Todd,  of  Kalamazoo,  and  John 
A.  Bornemann,  of  Norwood,  Pa.,  who  independently  and  upon  their 
own  initiative  have  forged  ahead,  making  a  success,  one  in  the  culti- 
vation of  peppermint  and  the  other  in  the  cultivation  of  belladonna 
and  a  few  other  plants.  The  war  situation,  however,  brought  us 
face  to  face  with  a  possible  scarcity  of  a  number  of  valuable  crude 
drugs  and  with  the  experience  which  we  have  been  gaining  we  are 
rapidly  building  up  this  new  industry. 
Large  quantities  of  the  Solanaceous  drugs  are  used  in  the  United 
States  and  the  market  supplies  of  these  have  been  considerably  cur- 
tailed. There  is  no  question,  however,  but  that  sufficient  quantities 
of  the  plants  yielding  these  drugs  will  be  raised  in  the  United  States 
to  supply  all  of  our  future  needs.  One  of  my  old  students  will  have 
forty  acres  in  Air 0 pa  Belladonna  alone,  and  he  has  orders  for  the 
