12 
Stramonium. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
*-     January,  19 19. 
The  U.  S.  Pharmacopeia  requirement  for  stramonium  leaves,  calls 
for  leaves  without  the  presence  or  admixture  of  more  than  10  per 
cent,  of  stems  or  other  foreign  material,  and  yielding  0.25  per  cent, 
of  the  total  alkaloids  of  stramonium. 
In  searching  through  the  available  literature  it  seems  evident  that 
this  factor  of  utilizing  stems  has  not  been  given  very  much  con- 
sideration. 7 
To  secure  more  information  on  the  possibilities  and  advisabilities 
of  employing  stems  and  roots  of  stramonium  in  conjunction  with  the 
leaves,  a  series  of  experiments  covering  this  phase  were  made. 
Fifteen  representative  plants  of  stramonium  were  taken  from 
the  field,  being  very  careful  to  retain  all  the  leaves  and  roots.  These 
plants  were  brought  to  the  laboratory,  and  the  leaves,  secondary 
stems,  primary  stems,  and  roots  were  carefully  separated  from  each 
plant,  and  placed  in  manila  paper  bags  and  dried  at  a  temperature 
of  500  to  6o°  C.  The  leaves  represented  not  only  the  entire  leaf, 
but  included  the  flowers  and  seed  pods  where  present.  The  primary 
stems  included  the  woody  portion;  the  secondary  stems  included  the 
smaller  portions  of  stems ;  the  roots  included  all  the  root  which  was 
cut  from  the  base  of  the  stem. 
Since  the  stramonium  plants  are  exceedingly  pulpy  it  was  thought 
quite  necessary  to  determine  the  percentage  of  moisture  in  each  part 
of  the  plant.  Hence  moisture  determinations  were  made  of  the 
various  parts  of  four  plants  and  the  data  is  recorded  below. 
TABLE  I. 
Table  Showing  the  Moisture  Content  of  the  Various  Parts  of 
Stramonium. 
Plant  No. 
Leaves,  Per  Cent. 
Secondary  Stems, 
Per  Cent. 
Primary  Stems, 
Per  Cent. 
Roots,  Per  Cent. 
I 
81.4 
88.5 
85.8 
81.5 
2 
82.0 
91.9 
86.8 
78.2 
3 
81.9 
90.4 
85.O 
79-1 
4 
84.6 
91.3 
85.8 
79.0 
The  results  presented  above  show  that  the  stramonium  plants 
contain  a  high  percentage  of  moisture,  i.  e.,  leaves  averaging  81  to 
85,  stems  85  to  92,  and  roots  78  to  81  per  cent. 
The  samples  of  stramonium  which  were  submitted  for  analysis 
for  total  alkaloid  content  were  made  up  as  follows :    The  dry  leaves 
