MEDICINAL, CONDIMENTAL AND ARO MATIC PLANTS. Figs. 680 691.
The growing of medicinal, condimental and aro matic plants in the United States has at present hardly passed beyond the experimental or garden stage, the demand for articles of these classes be ing in general met where possible by importation. Nearly all native drug products are now obtained from wild plants. The threatened disappearance of some of the most valuable has led the government and private experimenters to make efforts to put some of these kinds under cultivation, e. g., golden seal, ginseng, echinacea, Seneca snakeroot, Cas cara sagrada and others. Drug-plant cultivation on a small scale has long been practiced in a few places by the Shakers and others. At present, be ginnings in this line have been made in several places. Ginseng to a total value of about a million dollars is grown in New York, Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri and other states in the eastern half of the country. Golden seal is grown sparingly over a similar area. In California, some success has been reached in growing insect flowers (Pyrethrum spe cies) on a commercial scale.
Botanical source.
For medicinal, condimental and aromatic prod ucts in America, many botanical families are drawn on. The orchid family furnishes vanilla pods; the crowfoot family provides chiefly medici nal products, as aconite, golden seal and larkspur ; the potato family is represented by drugs, as bella donna, jimson weed, tobacco, and among the condi ments by red pepper and paprika; the mint family furnishes a considerable number of products used in medicine and also as flavoring agents, such as sage (Fig. 680), marjoram, basil, peppermint, spear mint, hyssop, thyme, savory and pennyroyal. Cat nip, belonging to this family, has a medicinal value only. The laurel family is especially rich in aro matic principles, and hence forms the group from which many spices are obtained, notably allspice, sweetbay, cloves and cinnamon. Sassafras and camphor, products of this family, are of especial medicinal value. The parsnip family shares this tendency toward aromatic products which are fre quently used for both purposes: caraway, anise, fennel, lovage and coriander. The mustard family
is also usually characterized by products of an aro matic or spicy nature, as mustard, white and black. The spurge family is characteristically the source of medicinal principles, usually purgative, as castor bean and croton seed. The great group of the com posites includes a variety of products, such as dandelion, tansy, wormwood, elecampane and camo mile to represent the medicinal group, and tarragon to represent the condimental use.
Parts of plants used.
Nearly all parts of the plant are made use of in obtaining medicinal, condimental and aromatic sub stances. The entire root is used in dandelion, burdock, belladonna, yellow dock, lovage, licorice ipecac, valerian and Seneca snakeroot ; the bark of the root only in some cases, as in sassafras and cotton-root bark. The entire herb, excluding larger stems, is used in a number of small plants, as lobelia, pennyroyal, thyme, peppermint, spearmint and catnip ; the leaves in belladonna, henbane, straenonium and foxglove ; the flowers only in camomiles ; the unopened buds in cloves; the fruits complete, as in red peppers, chillies, allspice, caraway, coriander, anise, fennel, black pepper and vanilla pods ; the seed freed from the see% vessel, as in mustard, poppy seed, castor-beans ar fenugreek.
Time of harvesting medicinal, condimental and a; matic products.
In general, root products are usually collected at the close of the growing season, when the plant has filled the roots or rhizomes with reserve prod ucts, thus giving them a full appearance which makes them more acceptable than the shrunken material collected in the growing season. Early spring, before the reserve products have been used up, is also a good season to harvest. Some dealers assert that the shrunken roots of some sorts are preferable as containing a greater quantity of the active principle than fall-dug roots. Perennial roots are sometimes preferred at some special stage of growth ; e. g., belladonna root gives the best yield of alkaloids when two to four years old ; if too old it becomes woody and the alkaloidal content decreases. Marshmallow root is preferred when about two years old.