AmbecUri9Pi8arm'}        Stems  in  Belladonna  Herb.  845 
Regarding  the  ash  content,  there  appear  to  be  a  number  of  incon- 
sistencies in  the  results.  The  leaves  show  approximately  the  same 
ash  content  at  all  the  stages  but  the  stems  seem  to  decrease  in  ash  as 
they  get  larger.  This  is  also  true  of  the  whole  herb.  It  would  seem 
doubtful  from  these  results  whether  the  ash  content  alone  is  a  reli- 
able criterion  of  the  percentage  of  stems  in  the  herb. 
The  percentage  of  alcoholic  extract  which  can  be  obtained  from 
the  material  decreases  steadily  from  the  first  to  the  eigth  stage.  The 
stems  show  the  greatest  range  in  the  amount  of  extract  yielded,  the 
highest  being  44  per  cent,  at  the  first  stage  and  the  lowest  18.1  per 
cent,  at  the  eighth  stage.  The  leaves  show  a  decrease  of  only  about 
10  per  cent,  from  the  first  to  the  eighth  stage.  While  the  decrease  in 
percentage  of  alcoholic  extract  is  general  it  is  evident  from  the  tables 
and  graphs  that  25  per  cent,  of  stems  may  be  included  in  the  herb 
without  reducing  the  percentage  of  extract  more  than  6  per  cent. 
The  percentage  of  total  alkaloids  also  decrease  through  the  dif- 
ferent stages.  This  is  decidedly  marked  in  the  stems,  0.898  per  cent, 
being  present  at  the  first  stage  and  0.170  per  cent,  at  the  last  stage. 
In  the  leaves  the  percentage  decreases  gradually  and  reaches  the 
minimum  of  0.537  per  cent,  at  the  seventh  stage.  At  the  eighth  or 
last  stage  the  percentage  had  increased  again  to  0.712  due,  no  doubt, 
to  the  presence  of  a  considerable  number  of  young  leaves  and  shoots 
at  this  stage.  The  whole  herb  decreased  in  total  alkaloids  from 
0.756  to  0.471  per  cent.,  and  at  no  stage  was  the  percentage  as  low 
as  the  minimum  set  by  the  Pharmacopoeia.  The  results  plainly  show 
that  all  the  stems  in  the  herb  could  be  included  in  the  sample  without 
reducing  the  alkaloidal  content  below  the  pharmacopceial  standard. 
Effect  of  the  Presence  of  Various  Percentages  of  Stems  on 
the  Quality  of  the  Herb. 
In  the  second  part  of  this  investigation  an  attempt  was  made  to 
determine  how  the  quality  of  the  leaf  is  affected  by  the  successive 
admixture  of  stems  of  certain  diameter.  A  quantity  of  herb  was 
cut  at  a  stage  corresponding  to  the  eighth  stage  in  the  experiment 
previously  described.  The  leaves,  including  all  buds,  flowers,  and 
fruit,  were  immediately  separated  and  weighed  and  designated  as 
mixture  A.  The  stems  were  then  cut  up  into  portions  according  to 
diameter  and  weighed  and  labeled  successively  from  1  to  8.  Portion 
1  consisted  of  stems  from  2  to  3  Mm.  in  diameter  while  portion  8 
