THE AMERICAN

JOURNAL OF PHARMACY.

SEPTEMBER, 1889.

THE ORIGIN OF FALSE SENEGA ROOT.

BY JOHN M. MAISCH.

When in 1876 Mr. Wm. Saunders called attention to a suspicious senega root (Proceed. Am. Phar. Assoc., 1876, p. 661), which afterwards became known as white and false senega, I stated my belief, that it came from a species of Polygala, though not from Pol. Senega. It disappeared from our market shortly afterwards (Proc. 1877, p. 525); but through the aid of the late W. H. Crawford, (Ibid. 1881, p. 522), I had been enabled to trace it to the neighborhood of Springfield, Mo., where it was said to have been collected. All subsequent efforts to ascertain the locality of collection, or to procure a living plant with root attached proved of no avail, though from time to time the same root was met with in commerce. In 1881 (Amer. Jour. Phar., 1881, p. 388), on receiving from Dr. J. H. Gunn, of Alabama, a specimen of Polygala Boykinii, Nuttall, I regarded it as the parent plant of the false senega, notwithstanding most of the latter roots were larger in dimensions than the root of the plant received.

The white senega, examined microscopically by Thos. Greenish, (Phar. Jour. and Tr., Sept. 7, 1873; Am. Jour. Phar., 1873, p. 523) was believed by him to be a true senega; but Geo. Goebel (A. Jour. Ph., 1881, p. 322) pointed out some striking structural and chemical differences.

That this white keelless root is derived from Polygala Senega has been maintained by many dealers; and this belief has doubtless been strengthened by papers on commercial senega by J. U. and C. G. Lloyd, who have made a special study of the indigenous medicinal plants. In Proc. Am. Phar. A., 1881, p. 453, and in Phar. Rundschau, New York, 1889, p. 86, they describe the different commercial varieties of (southern or western, and northern) senega, all of which

are stated to come from the typical form and several varieties of Pol. Senega. In one of these papers (1881) it is stated that "Polygala Boykinii is the only native species that, to our knowledge, approaches in size the Pol. Senega ;" and in the other (1889) that "continued inquiries regarding the root of Pol. Boykinii have led to completely negative results; not a single commercial lot of senega from the southern states contained that root." Prof. Chas. Mohr of Mobile, who is well acquainted with the flora of the southern states, has shown (Phar. Rundschau, 1889, p. 191) that the distribution of the two species is such, that an accidental intermixture of the two roots is impossible, and that the root of P. Boykinii cannot be collected in such a quantity and at a price as to become an article of commerce. (Ibid. p. 89).

While it is possible that white or false senega may occasionally be found as an admixture of officinal senega, I cannot make such a statement from personal observation; but have not doubted the difference in the botanical origin of the two roots, as I had occasion to state quite recently (AM. JOUR. PHAR., 1889, p. 381). The papers just quoted seem to render untenable my belief in the origin of the false root from P. Boykinii; but I am pleased to be able now to definitely identify the species yielding it.

Quite recently Messrs. Peek & Velsor, of New York City, sent me a plant, which on examination seemed to be Polygala alba, Nuttall; the root to which the numerous stems are attached is fully four inches in length and, beneath the crown, one-fourth inch in diameter. On comparing it with a number of specimens in several herbaria, the roots of the latter, when present, were found to be considerably smaller, more slender and less branched. The resemblance of the specimen with senega root, notwithstanding the absence of the keel, suggested the plant possibly to be a variety of the latter species with linear leaves; but the narrow-leaved specimens of true senega were observed to differ essentially in the root, leaves and flowers. Not having the means to remove every doubt, it was deemed advisable to consult some of the best judges of the flora of the western states.

In one of the letters Messrs. Peek & Velsor wrote as follows: "The shipper informs us that it is gathered in Kansas and that a few bales every year have passed through his hands to dealers and manufacturers, and that there had never before been any question as to its being Polygala Senega until we refused it."

In regard to the specimen plant, Professor Sereno Watson writes: "The Polygala sent must be P. alba, the root of which varies considerably in its character." Professor Thos. C. Porter writes: "The Kansas Polygala has all the characters of P. alba, Nuttall. In the specimens of our herbarium, from a number of widely different stations, some have roots fully as large as that of yours. The species is somewhat variable and includes P. Beyrichii, T. & G.”

The original description of the plant as given by Nuttall in 1818 (Genera of the North American Plants, II, p. 87), is as follows: P. alba. Perennial; flowers cristate; stem simple; leaves alternate, linear, revolute on the margin; flowers racemosely spiked; spike' long pedunculate, bracts deciduous; wings of the calyx rounded, about the length of the corolla. Hab.: On the plains of the Missouri, common, and the only species of the genus in the upper part of Louisiana. Obs.: A small plant scarcely more than six inches high, considerably allied to P. Senega, but more than a variety, as it has been considered by Mr. Pursh; leaves smooth and narrow; flowers and calyx white, nearly sessile; bracts lanceolate.

Some additional characters, giving also some of the variations of the plant, are copied from other works, namely:

Stems several from a somewhat woody root, erect or ascending, angular, at length branched above; leaves linear, narrowed towards the base, acute, or the lower ones obtuse. Stems to 1 foot high. Spikes 1 to 3 inches long.—Chapman, Flora of the Southern United States. Leaves linear to oblanceolate, sessile or barely petioled, margins slightly revolute; stem leafy half way to the summit; flowers deciduous, leaving the rachis roughened after their fall.-Rothrock, Geographical survey west of the 100th meridian; VI, Botany.

The lower leaves are often distinctly verticillate.-Sereno Watson, Procs. Amer. Acad. of Arts and Sciences, XVII (1882), p. 325.

It will be observed that Pursh regarded the plant merely as a variety of P. Senega, and that Nuttall, in 1818, pointed out its near relation to the latter species. Twenty years later, Torrey and Gray stated (Flora of North America, I, 131): "We have not seen this plant, but we suspect that it is a variety of P. Senega." Since the resemblance extends also to the root, the latter was most likely originally collected in good faith and sold as senega; and after the difference between the two roots had been pointed out, the opinion as

. Jour. Pharm

Sept., 1889

to identity was probably adhered to without showing the plant to a botanist.

I append here the diagnostical characters of P. Beyrichii as given by Torrey and Gray (loc. cit.), and which are in part included in some of the quotations above: Spike dense, acute, flowers on very short pedicels; wings orbicular-obovate, concave, rather longer than the broadly obovate lateral petals; capsule oblong; seed very villous with appressed hairs; lobes of the caruncle distant, about half as long as the seed; stems numerous, somewhat branched; leaves linear or linear-spatulate, somewhat glandular.

Regarding the distribution of this species, Nuttall states that it is common "on the plains of the Missouri" and "in the upper part of Louisiana." Nuttall had explored the country along the Missouri river in 1810, when the territory of Louisiana extended northward to the British possessions. From these northern plains the species extends southward to Texas and into Mexico. Rothrock's specimens were collected in Arizona at an altitude of over 7,000 feet; and Watson's remarks quoted above refer to plants coming from several Mexican states.

It is but natural to expect considerable variation in a plant indigenous to such a large portion of the North American continent, and that these variations should apply not only to the size and shape of the stem and leaves, but likewise to the underground portion. Many of the Mexican plants in herbaria agree very well (root excepted) with the Kansas plant in my possession which has occasioned the present investigation; still other Mexican plants have been observed as Pol. alba, in which the inflorescence was decidedly thicker, more conical and less acute than in the other forms from Texas and farther north.

For a sample of this false senega root from Kansas I am indebted to Messrs. Peek & Velsor; it is of the same handsome light color as the false senega of 1876, and agrees in all essential characters with the false senega root seen since then, except that some of these samples are somewhat darker in color; but I have never seen it as deep brown in shade as the much larger northern senega, which has been in commerce for about ten years or more. The following description of the sample before me applies, therefore, with the variation mentioned, to all the samples seen during the past thirteen years.

Commercial false senega consists of but little broken roots, the total length of which varies between four and six inches. The head has a

close resemblance to that found in senega root, is about five-eighths inch, sometimes an inch, in thickness, and bears above a large number of stem remnants. Beneath the head the root is suddenly contracted to the thickness of about one-fourth inch; a few small roots may usually be picked out, scarcely one-eighth inch in thickness, while some larger roots are three-eighths, or rarely one-half, inch thick. The color is pale brownish-yellow, much lighter than commercial senega is usually seen, and lighter than all other officinal roots, the white ones excepted; since the interior of the root, both bark and meditullium, is of a nearly white color, it is obvious that in bulk the color of false senega root must have a still lighter tint, approaching to white, in proportion to the abrasion of the outer layer. Older roots, particularly near the head, have a thin layer of cork of about the same shade of brown as gentian. The main root is nearly straight, and the six or eight thinner branches are descending or curved downwards, while true senega very frequently divides into almost horizontally spreading branches. The keel is absent; slight indications of it are very rarely observed, and only in the thickest roots, near the head; but even here the transverse section of the wood has a circular outline, the same as in every other part of the root and its branches. A similar regularity, regarding the cylindrical shape of the meditullium, has not been observed by me in the much thicker roots of northern senega; and that the typical form of senega has a cylindrical wood only in the part immediately below the head is well known. I may also mention that I have found the meditullium of the false senega, after freeing it completely from the bark, to be entirely tasteless, while the same portion of the northern senega has a gradually developed decidedly acrid taste.

The small roots in the sample agree well with P. Boykinii; but this species not growing in Kansas cannot be present in the sample under consideration. A histological investigation of the material on hand is contemplated, and it is hoped may reveal differences in addition to the microscopical characters pointed out. Not having seen the southern senega, of which Prof. Lloyd has handled some bales, and which was of excellent quality, but without any observable keel (loc. cit., p. 88), I cannot say whether or not it was identical with false senega; but it should be noted that thus far the latter is not known to come from a southern state; the only two localities, as yet ascertained, have been pointed out by me, viz., southwestern Missouri and Kansas.