412 
Medicinal  Plant  Supplies. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
June,  1918. 
ing  plants  will  meet  with  an  early  success  in  this  country.  Thymol, 
an  important  medicine  in  the  treatment  of  hookworm,  is  practically 
unavailable  at  the  present  time.  Nevertheless  the  experiments  of 
the  government  conducted  at  Orlando,  Fla.,  and  Madison,  Wis., 
have  shown  that  an  acre  planted  with  horsemint  (Monarda  punc- 
tata) will  yield  about  forty  pounds  of  oil.  It  has  been  calculated 
that  the  commercial  production  of  this  oil  can  be  made  to  show  a 
profit  of  about  $16.00  per  acre.  The  range  of  odoriferous  plants 
and  those  yielding  volatile  oils  which  have  been  experimented  on  by 
the  government  include:  Anise,  basil,  cajeput,  calamus,  camphor, 
caraway,  cassia,  chamomile,  citronella,  cumin,  curcuma,  eucalyptus, 
fennel,  galangal,  geranium,  ginger,  horsemint,  lavender,  lemongrass, 
marjoram,  orange,  palmrosa,  pennyroyal,  peppermint,  rose,  rose- 
mary, sage,  spearmint,  tansy,  thyme,  vetiver,  wormseed,  wormwood 
and  ylang  ylang. 
The  cultivation  of  medicinal  plants,  while  one  of  very  great 
promise,  requires  a  conservative  handling  of  the  situation.  In  this 
country  there  are  a  great  many  small  growers,  and  quite  a  number 
of  firms  having  small  yards  who  are  eager  to  experiment  in  this 
work.  As  a  pastime  it  is  likely  to  be  of  very  great  interest,  but  very 
few  realize  the  dangers  connected  with  it.  Only  recently  it  was  re- 
ported that  a  whole  family  barely  escaped  death  by  poisoning  when 
through  an  accident  a  can  of  belladonna  seeds  was  used  in  the  prepa- 
ration of  the  morning  coffee.  If  persons  have  fair  success  in  grow- 
ing any  of  these  medicinal  plants  they  quite  naturally  are  anxious  to 
dispose  of  them  at  a  profit,  and  then  the  situation  is  very  pathetic. 
Usually  the  farmer  knows  nothing  as  to  their  yield  of  active  prin- 
ciples, and  if  a  fair  price  is  offered  him  he  is  very  likely  to  be  dis- 
satisfied and  the  result  is  not  at  all  calculated  to  maintain  his  interest 
in  this  work.  The  Department  of  Agriculture  has  determined  on  a 
conservative  policy  in  regard  to  the  stimulation  of  the  drug  produc- 
tion. They  are  disseminating  the  necessary  information  to  those 
who  are  specially  trained  and  supplying  the  needed  information  to 
them.  When  we  reflect  that  there  was  hardly  any  interest  in  the 
growing  of  drug  plants  twenty  years  ago,  yet  taking  it  as  a  whole 
there  has  been  considerable  progress  made,  and  it  is  not  too  much 
to  predict  that  this  industry  will  grow  apace  with  that  of  other  in- 
dustries that  have  been  started  in  the  United  States  and  while  we 
may  not  be  entirely  independent  yet  we  will  never  be  as  dependent 
upon  other  nations  as  we  have  been  up  until  the  present  time.  Not 
