THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARM^glfN 
MARCH,  i9i5      l^j         A  v  £el 
  & 
THE  PROPER  TIME  TO  COLLECT  S^M^I^IlM^r 
By  O.  A.  Farwell,  Department  of  Botany,  Parke,  Davis  &  Co.,  Detroit,  Mich. 
In  the  September  issue  of  the  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy 
for  1913  there  appeared  a  paper  by  Drs.  Homerberg  and  Beringer  on 
the  proper  time  to  collect  Sanguinaria.  The  time  suggested,  "  About 
or  immediately  after  flowering/'  was  based  upon  the  results  of  assays 
of  the  drug  "  collected  at  various  times  from  May — just  after  flower- 
ing— to  August — just  before  the  leaves  began  to  die." 
But  as  the  time  of  collection  of  the  samples  assayed  did  not  cover 
that-period  of  the  year  specified  by  the  U.  S.  P.  for  its  collection,  i.e., 
"  After  the  death  of  the  foliage,"  it  was  thought  desirable  to  make 
various  collections  during  this  period  in  order  to  supplement  and 
make  more  complete  the  work  carried  out  by  Drs.  Homerberg  and 
Beringer.  Accordingly,  samples  of  the  rhizome  were  collected  at 
various  times  during  the  ensuing  year  which  covered  both  the  active 
and  quiescent  periods  of  the  species.  The  rhizomes  were  carefully 
cleaned,  the  rootlets  removed,  and  air-dried  in  the  shade  at  ordinary 
room  temperature ;  the  last  collection,  however,  was  dried  artificially. 
The  rootlets  were-kept  separately  until  the  close  of  the  experiment, 
when  they  were  mixed  together  and  assayed.  They  yielded  1.77  per 
cent,  sanguinarine,  thus  averaging  about  one-third  the  amount  ob- 
tained from  the  rhizomes. 
The  results  obtained  confirm  in  all  respects  those  obtained  by 
Drs.  Homerberg  and  Beringer,  indicating  that  the  best  time  to 
collect  the  rhizome,  which  should  be  freed  of  rootlets,  is  at  the 
flowering  season. 
The  commercial  drug  can  be  readily  separated  on  gross  internal 
characters  into  three  grades,  probably  representing  three  species : 
A.  This  grade  breaks  with  a  short,  waxy  fracture,  showing  a 
white  ground  plentifully  sprinkled  with  red  resin  cells. 
(97) 
