Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Oct.,  1893. 
Datura  Stramonium. 
479 
THE  RELATIVE  ALKALOIDAL  VALUE  OF  THE  VARIOUS 
PARTS  OF  THE  PLANTOF  DATURA  STRAMONIUM. 
By  Alfred  R.  L.  Dohme,  Ph.D.  """" 
The  original  intention  when  this  subject  was  taken  up,  was  to 
extend  its  scope  so  as  to  embrace  all  of  the  principal  narcotic  herbs, 
viz.:  hyoscyamus  niger,  atropa  belladonna,  duboisia  myoporoides  and 
datura  stramonium,  and  to  examine  the  drugs  both  in  the  dry  and 
the  fresh  condition  as  to  their  content  of  alkaloids.  Unfortunately 
this  could  not  be  carried  out,  as  not  all  of  the  parts  of  each  of  the 
plants  could  be  obtained,  and  many  of  these  that  did  arrive  from 
Europe  in  the  green  state  had  been  spoiled  during  transit  and  were 
worthless.  But  little  work  has  been  done  recently  on  this  subject,, 
and  as  far  as  the  writer  knows  no  work  has  been  published  that 
bears  the  stamp  of  a  titration  examination  on  it.  Guenther,1  in 
1869,  obtained  the  following  results  as  the  outcome  of  an  examina- 
tion of  Atropa  Belladonna  and  Datura  Stramonium  using  only  fresh, 
undried  plants : 
Per  Cent. 
Alkaloids 
Gravimetrically.. 
L/eaves  of  Atropa  Belladonna,    0*2 
Stems    "      "  "    0*042 
Seed      "      "  "   0-335 
Ripe  fruit  of  "  "   0*21 
Unripe    "     "  "    0*196' 
Roots      "     "  "   0*062 
Leaves  of  Datura  Stramonium,   0*076 
Stems    "     "  "    0-018. 
Seed      "     "  M   0*255; 
Roots    M      "  "    0*024 
In  the  light  of  modern  experience  these  results  appear  rather 
abnormal  and  it  seems  difficult  to  account  for  the  very  small  yield 
of  alkaloids  from  belladonna  root  and  stramonium  leaves,  as  well 
as  the  small  yield  from  belladonna  leaves  as  compared  with  the 
large  yield  from  belladonna  seed  and  stramonium  seed. 
Lefort  attempted  to  discover  a  relation  between  the  yield  of  the 
drug  and  the  stage  of  its  growth  at  which  it  was  gathered.  He  found : 
Per  Cent. 
Alkaloids 
Gravimetrically. 
Belladonna  Leaves,  gathered  in  August,  to  contain,   0*45 
May            "    0*40 
"          Roots,  2  to  3  years  old,               "    0*475 
"            "     7  to  8        "                    "    0*30 
1  Guenther — Pharmaceutische  Zeitschrift  fur  Russland,  February,  1869. 
