Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/167

Rh each answerable to the formula C17H23NO3. They can all three be resolved thus : —

1. Atropine yields tropic acid and tropine (base) ;

2. Hyoscyamine yields the same, i.e, tropic acid, and tropine (base) ;

3. Hyoscine yields tropic acid, and psendo-tropine,

Note here, that in chemical parlance, Atropine is a compound of a base called Tropine and Tropic acid, Ladenburg calls the compound Tropeine."

Syn. : — Physalis Stramorrifolia, Wall.

Habitat: --Central Himalaya, Nepal and Sikkim.

An erect, glabrescent herb. Branches 3-6ft., sparingly divided, rusty-tomentose when young, later pubernlous or glabrate. Leaves 8 by 3 in., acute at both ends, ovate lanceolate, ultimately glabrate ; petiole ½in., peduncles lin. Calyx in flower ⅔in,, in fruit attaining to 2 by 1¼in., lobes short, irregular. Fruit Calyx rather reticulated. Corolla 1¼ by ¾in., lurid yellow or greenish purple. Ovary 2 celled, 1-celled near the top. Capsule ¾in., lid 1-celled.

Use : — A tincture of the leaves, in the proportion of one ounce to eight ounces of alcohol, administered produces dilatation of the pupil. The subject demands further investigation (Ph. Ind.)

It has been examined by Siebert. (Archiv. der Pharm. Feb. 20, 1890, p. 145.) Prom flowering plants he reports that he obtained, by fractional precipitation of an acidulated liquid with gold chloride, a " not inconsiderable quantity of hyoscyamine," but no atropine or hyoscine, while from plants collected when the seed had ripened, only a very small quantity of atropine could be isolated under the same conditions and no hyoscyamine. The failure to detect hyoscine is thought to be possibly due to insufficiency of the material used. These results seem to indicate that the degree of development of the plant may have an important relation to the quantity and nature of the alkaloids occurring in it. (Pharm. Journ. Mar. 1st, 1890, p. 709.)

Habitat:— N. Kashmir and Western Tibet.

Vern. : — Sholar, bajar-bang, nandru, dandarwa, lang thang, khardag (,Pb).