292 
Breeding  Medicinal  Plants. 
( Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
t       July,  1913. 
of  responsibility,  and  but  little  power  of  discrimination  in  selecting 
and  identifying  plants.  They  cannot  separate  closely  related  species, 
a  procedure  often  necessary  in  the  intelligent  collection  of  medic- 
inal plants,  and  frankly  refuse  to  observe  certain  rules  governing 
collection  and  curing.  It  is  thus  evident  that  the  variations  of 
nature  associated  with  ignorance,  often  give  the  pharmacist  and 
practicing  physician  a  poor  and  suspicious  product.  Rigid  in- 
spections must  be  enforced  at  all  stages  in  the  process  of  manu- 
facturing medicinal  preparations.  But  however  rigid  these  in- 
spections may  be,  they  cannot  overcome  all  the  variations  of  plant 
growth  or  correct  all  the  mistakes  of  careless  collectors.  The 
supply  of  medicinal  plant  products  should  be  controlled  with  the 
same  degree  of  nicety  as  the  agricultural  products  or  even  with 
greater  precision,  since  in  many  instances  a  life  is  dependent  upon 
the  strength  and  purity  of  some  vegetable  drug. 
Plant  breeders  are  supplying  fruits  of  varying  acid  values,  corn 
of  high  and  low  percentage  of  oil  and  protein,  carefully  selected 
sugar  beets  of  high  yielding  power,  and  varieties  of  tobacco  suit- 
able for  various  purposes  according  to  an  indicated  nicotine  con- 
tent. All  of  these  achievements  and  numerous  others  are  note- 
worthy. Of  a  different  character,  but  of  no  less  importance  are 
the  drug  producing  plants  which  yield  the  alkaloids,  glucosides, 
saponins,  resins,  oleoresins,  etc.,  upon  which  their  curative  property 
depends.  Cannot  the  plants  yielding  these  so-called  active  prin- 
ciples be  brought  under  the  influence  and  control  of  the  breeder, 
and  be  made  to  produce  their  respective  products  more  abundantly 
and  more  consistently  than  in  the  wild  state?  In  attempting  to 
answer  this  question,  experiments  have  been  started  with  several 
medicinal  -  plants  which  will  extend  over  a  considerable  period  of 
time,  and  involve  various  problems  of  selection  and  breeding. 
The  SolanacecE  offer  as  rich  a  field  in  the  development  of 
improved  medicinal  forms  as  it  has  already  offered  in  the  pro- 
duction of  the  potato,  tomato,  egg  plant  and  capsicum  among  the 
food  producing  plants,  and  the  datura,  solanum,  capsicum  and 
tobacco  of  the  decorative  forms.  In  the  terminology  of  the  drug- 
gist there  is  found  within  the  same  family  the  very  important 
form,  belladonna,  henbane  and  stramonium,  all  yielding  alkaloids 
and  readily  amenable  to  chemical  methods  of  assay.  These  three 
genera,  in  addition  to  others  from  different  plant  families,  are 
