35o 
Cultivation  of  Medicinal  Plants. 
(Am.  Jour  Pharm. 
\     August,  1915. 
with  the  cultivation  of  medicinal  plants  that  are  worthy  of  con- 
sideration by  the  manufacturers  of  products  therefrom. 
First,  the  manufacturer  who  starts  out  with  high  expectations, 
and  places  a  hundred  or  a  thousand  acres  of  ground  under  cultivation, 
without  consideration  of  all  the  factors  connected  therewith,  will  be 
surprised  at  the  small  yield  and  the  corresponding  high  cost  of  his 
product.  If,  without  due  consideration,  he  should  induce  the  farmers 
and  gardeners  in  the  vicinity  of  his  factory  to  put  medicinal  plants 
under  cultivation,  he  would  also  be  surprised  and  disappointed  at  the 
outcome. 
If  all  the  manufacturers  who  are  interested  in  belladonna  should 
succeed  in  the  cultivation  of  a  considerable  number  of  acres,  the 
yield  might  be  so  large  as  to  depress  the  price  and  discourage  further 
attempts,  and  the  whole  matter  would  swing  back  to  former  con- 
ditions. If,  at  the  close  of  the  European  struggle,  certain  supplies 
of  crude  drugs  should  come  forward,  and  the  amount,  quality  and 
price  become  satisfactory,  the  manufacturer  would  be  apt  to  rest 
content  and  leave  things  as  they  are. 
On  the  other  hand,  there  are  possibilities  which  should  invite  the 
attention  of  the  conscientious  manufacturer. 
First,  the  possibility  of  an  increased  yield.  Thus  the  drugs  now 
in  scant  supply  and  low  in  quality  might  become  constant. 
In  the  cultivation  of  medicinal  plants  there  is  the  possibility  of 
securing  uniformity,  which  is  not  possible  under  the  conditions  which 
now  prevail.  It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  plants  such  as  cinchona, 
opium  and  the  like,  under  cultivation  have  given  an  increased  yield  of 
constituents,  and  there  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  other  medicinal 
plants  might  be  made  to  follow  the  same  course. 
It  has  been  demonstrated  that  in  certain  plants,  under  cultivation, 
there  is  an  increased,  possibly  an  enhanced  action.  Incidentally,  it 
^has  been  established  that  by  destroying  the  diastase  immediately  upon 
gathering  certain  plants,  it  is  possible  to  retain  the  appearance  of  the 
fresh  plant  unimpaired,  especially  as  it  relates  to  color  value.  A 
notable  example  of  this  came  under  the  writer's  observation  on  the 
drug  farms  abroad.  With  such  plants  as  belladonna,  hyoscyamus, 
etc.,  the  leaves  are  collected  in  such  a  way  that  they  are  not  allowed 
to  wilt,  and  are  carefully  dried  and  sold  at  a  high  price  per  pound. 
The  same  part  of  the  plant,  carelessly  handled,  would  bring  only  a 
few  cents  per  pound.  The  power  of  the  drug  obtained  from  plants 
in  which  the  diastasic  ferments  have  been  destroyed  has  been  found 
