730 
Indian  Belladonna  Root. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Oct.,  19 18. 
that  a  protective  film  would  form  on  the  surface  and  prevent  further 
change  in  the  bulk. 
We  desire  to  express  our  thanks  to  Messrs.  Booth  and  Company, 
London,  Limited,  and  Messrs,  J.  H.  Rayner  and  Company  for  the 
specimens  of  the  seeds  upon  which  our  experiments  were  carried 
out. 
INDIAN  BELLADONNA  ROOT.1 
By  E.  M.  Holmes,  F.L.S. 
For  some  years  past,  belladonna  root  imported  from  India  has 
replaced  the  English  root  in  British  commerce  to  some  extent,  on 
the  ground  that  the  root  presented  no  perceptible  difference  to  the 
ordinary  observer,  and  that  it  yielded  a  somewhat  higher  alkaloidal 
percentage.  That  belladonna  root  should  be  imported  in  quantity 
from  India  seemed  to  indicate  a  new  departure,  since  it  is  not  an 
article  met  with  in  the  Indian  bazaars,  it  is  not  mentioned  by  Dr. 
Dymock  in  his  "  Materia  Medica  of  Western  India,"  nor  in  the 
works  of  "  Mooden  Sherff  and  U.  C.  Dutt."  Dr.  (now  Sir)  George 
Watt,  in  his  "  Dictionary  of  the  Economic  Products  of  India,"  Vol. 
I>  P-  352>  points  out:  "It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  while  this  most 
useful  plant  is  exceedingly  plentiful  in  many  parts  of  the  western 
Himalayas,  its  medicinal  virtues  seem  to  have  escaped  the  detection 
of  the  natives  of  India  completely.  .  .  .  Not  a  single  leaf  or  root 
of  this  most  valuable  drug  can  be  purchased,  of  Indian  origin,  in 
the  native  drug  shops  of  the  plains.  It  would  therefore  appear  that 
the  natives  of  India  have  been  made  familiar  with  the  virtues  of  this 
plant  in  the  form  of  an  imported  drug,  while  the  Himalayas  might 
supply  the  world  with  belladonna."  But  he  further  remarks  that 
"the  leaves  of  the  Indian  plant  are  a  little  more  acuminate  in  the 
Himalayan  than  in  the  European  plant.  This  is  probably  what  has 
given  origin  to  Atropa  lutescens  Jacquemont."  Dr.  Watt  has  evi- 
dently followed  the  authors  of  the  "  Flora  of  British  India,"  in  con- 
sidering the  Atropa  lutescens  of  Jacquemont  to  be  a  form1  of  Atropa 
Belladonna  Linn. 
But  even  supposing  that  the  two  plants  are  identical,  there  was 
1  Reprinted  from  The  Pharmaceutical  Journal  and  Pharmacist,  August 
31,  1918. 
