628 
Belladonna  Cultivation. 
{Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
September,  1920. 
in  alkaloid  has  brought  no  tangible  results.  For  the  most  part 
plants  will  breed  true  only  for  two  or,  at  least,  three  generations.  So 
far  as  our  knowledge  goes,  no  hardy  strain  of  belladonna  has  been 
developed.  Experiments  of  growing  under  shade,  such  as  tobacco 
cloth,  while  giving  a  somewhat  increased  yield,  were  not  sufficiently 
striking  to  warrant  a  continuous  use.  A  number  of  growers  have 
produced  a  strain  which  gives  a  large  leaf. 
The  Department  of  Agriculture  at  Washington  has,  in  a  small 
way,  produced  a  strain  of  belladonna  which  will  give  a  larger  yield 
of  alkaloid  in  the  leaf  and  stem,  and  they  are  hopeful  that  this  charac- 
ter may  be  transmitted. 
Belladonna  Herb. — Growers  of  belladonna  are  severely  handi- 
capped under  present  conditions,  whereby  the  leaves  and  the  roots 
only  are  marketable. 
The  Ninth  Revision  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  required  that  bella- 
donna folia  should  be  "without  the  admixture  of  more  than  ten 
per  cent,  of  stems  or  other  foreign  matter."  Under  this  standard 
the  grower  is  deprived  of  the  sale  of  from  thirty  to  fifty  per  cent, 
of  the  tops. 
The  relative  weights  of  green  herb  and  root  from  typical  plants 
is  shown  by  the  following  figures,  which  were  secured  from  two  or 
three  plants  of  each  lot  designated,  selected  at  random  at  the  close 
of  the  season.  These  plants  had,  of  course,  yielded  from  two  to 
four  cuttings  earlier  in  the  season: 
CoMPARATivK  Yield  in  Herb  and  Root  (Green) 
Three  year  old  plants:  Per  Cent.  Alkaloid.  Grams  Alkaloid. 
Herb        1744  grams  
.    0 . 083 
1-45 
.  0.163 
1.94 
First-year  seedlings  (potted  plants) : 
Herb        11 44  grams  
0.061 
0.  70 
Roots         548  grams  
•  0.159 
0.87 
First-year  seedlings  (cold-frame  plants) : 
Herb        1079  grams  
0.062 
0.67 
Roots         466  grams  
0. 167 
0.78 
Numerous  authorities  have  shown  that  the  stems  of  belladonna 
equal,  and  at  times  exceed,  in  alkaloidal  content  the  standard  of  the 
Pharmacopoeia.  Our  work  has  repeatedly  shown  that  the  whole 
of  the  stems  of  the  plant  can  be  mixed  with  the  leaves — in  other 
words,  the  entire  tops  of  cultivated  belladonna — and  fully  meet  the 
alkaloidal  requirements  of  the  Pharmacopoeia. 
