Mandrake ( Mandragora autumnalis )

ELLADONNA LEAVES.—Macroscopically: mandrake exporter are of two sizes, the larger about 1 1/2 d. m. long, the smaller being about one-half this size. They are brownish-green upon the upper surface and gray-green below, broadly ovate or ovate-long, narrowed into a petiole; apex acute or acuminate; margin entire, the petioles and nerves of the underside of the leaf particularly are downy, hairy, and glandulous. Both surfaces of the leaf possess trichomes, numerous cells are apparent, filled with crystal-like contents, giving the leaf the peculiar spotted appearance it possesses. The leaf is membranaceous, odor narcotic, and taste bitter and disagreeable.

Microscopically: "The epidermal cells, on making a surface section, appear undulating. mandrake exporter On the under surface the stomata are more numerous, near to which arise trichomes, which tend to cover and protect the stomata by preventing too great evaporation and so assist the work of transpiration. The hairs are of three kinds: (a) Simple-jointed cells; (b) short, glandular cells, with one or more (3 to 4) celled apex; (c) hairs with long stalks and a spherical-celled apex. In the mesophyll are cells containing an innumerable number of granule-like or crystal-like bodies.

Belladonna Leaves of the Market: "As found in the market, belladonna leaves, especially the finer grades,mandrake exporter when crumpled or broken up, look very much like the mints, but are easily distinguished from them by the narcotic odor and disagreeably bitter taste. They also resemble somewhat the narcotic herbs, stramonium and hyoscyamus, but from these may be easily distinguished.

"Belladonna leaves, compared to the other official leaves of the Solanaceae, are comparatively smooth and the margin is entire. The upper surface is darker than the lower surface. The undeveloped fruit, a calyx with an unripe berry, is often present."Stramonium leaves are dark-green and not quite so smooth as belladonna, the hairs shorter, with a many-celled apex, and in the mesophyll mandrake supplier exporter mandrake exporter are numerous cells containing large, single crystals of calcium oxalate. The perforations and cork formations in the leaves are numerous. The base of the leaf is unequal and does not taper into a petiole. The fruit is a capsule, and very often a few reniform seeds will be found present.

"Hyoscyamus leaves are furnished with long hairs, which tend to become tangled and matted, so giving the leaf a hairy appearance. There is an absence of petiole and a presence of stem-stalks. The fruit is a pyxis enclosed in an urn-shaped calyx. The seeds are much smaller than stramonium.

he cork consists of thin layer of cells, next to which is arranged the cortex. In the latter are numerous cells filled with crystal-like particles, called by Wigand krystallmehl, and by Moeller krystallsand. These are very common characteristics in both the roots and the leaves of belladonna. The sieve tubes are scarcely perceptible in the bark of young roots, but later are formed in mandrake exporter groups more or less wedge-shaped like the wood bundles. These sieve tubes show a beautiful sieve plate in longitudinal section. Stone cells are wanting. As regards the bast in belladonna authors disagree. Wigand (4th ed., 1887) mentions the presence of bast. Prof. Schrenck announced in the American Druggist (1887, p. 2) that he had detected bast cells in belladonna root, but found it necessary to remove the starch and stain the cells. The writer examined a mount made by Prof.

Schrenck from the belladonna root of commerce (October 16, 1886) mounted in glycerin jelly, and stained apparently with phloroglucin, and readily made out, bast cells. Upon further investigation he found it unnecessary to use clearing and staining agents to discover them. The ducts are provided with elliptical pores. The wood bundles are surrounded by wood parenchyma (colored yellow by potassium hydroxide solution), the bundles separated from each other by radially broad, medullary rays. Both the wood and bast parenchyma contain starch. The starch grains are of medium size, in shape round, irregular or hemispherical, or even 2 or 3-sided; single and sometimes compounded of 2 or 4 starch grains. Some of the grains possess a distinct cross-cleft or a stone-like nucleus; in others, however, the stratifications are scarcely apparent. With sulphuric acid alone large numbers of prismatic crystals are produced