Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-06-04
SEEK SUBSTITUTES
FOR EXOTIC DRUGS
Discoveries Expected as Result of
Plant Cultivation at Col.
lege of Pharmacy

when the war checked the Importation Of
some of the essential drugs used in this
country American pharmacists rose TO the
emergency with true American spirit and
said. why worry" We will soon produce
something just as good as these allen drugs
on the roof garden of the Philadelphia
College of Pharmacy, where students of that
institution investigate soils and the effect
thereof on growing plants also observe cause
and effects of climatic conditions, there are
hundreds of baby plants growing under the
supervision of Prof II. W. Ioungken head
of the department Of botany. and scores of
useful facts will be added to the already
heavy supply of Information on hand during
the summer months. when he expects to
pursue his investigation alone.
The College of Pharmacy this year turned
out more than a hundred students fifteen
of whom were women. It is believed that
more of the latter than ever before will
enter this and every other institution of like
design next fall, the colleges encour-
aging women to take up this profession be-
cause of the great need Of releasing trained
male pharmacists for service at the front.
Professor Youngken pronounces the woman
pharmacist, taken by and large. fully the
equal of the man in her line. He says
their ability as pharmacists Is of high
order and Is cordial in his invitation to the
feminine tyro Of pharmacy to come into the
roof garden and study along with the men
next winter.
1t will not be surprising IL, under the in
cessant scrutiny given to the infant tansy,
rue, colts foot rhubarb sumac. boneset. ash
and other old-fashioned herbs whose eff
cacy was a fixed belief among people of an
other generation, new properties and new
uses may soon be discovered, In the new
discoveries to be made by the college ex-
perts 1t may be that the aspirins and quinines
of the present will be mere also-rans in the
drug world of the future.
Few foreign medicines of herbaceous ori-
gin now exist. according to the rroof OF the
Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. that have
not an equally good substitute In the gar
dens of this country.
Students there have been watching the ger
rnation of the seeds of the foxglove and
following its habits of growth to determine
whether the Siberica digitals may not in
time become as valuable to science as the
purpurea digtalis. a more difficult and mac
cessible variety. The dgtalis originates with
the simple plant known as the foxglove and
its value to medicine is tremendous because
of its action on the heart Reladonna is also
one Of the plants grown for the investiga-
ton of the students. This. however, has
already been grown successfully around Phil
adelphia for the last eight or ten years ABB
senthium, the herb from which absinthe. the
drug whose use has been abused as to
require legislation, Is undergoing cultivation
because of its quality a depressant. Cas-
cara sagrada is another. Boneset the old
time remedy for colds. and colts foot" the
expectorant Camphora cinnaiaomum. from
whose bark comes the camphor. is still an
other important medicinal plant that ~ rear
fng its mead some three feet high and has
been watched with scientific eagerness by the
students.
Hosts of other plants, running almost
the whole gamut of American-nade drugs
are already f1ourishing in the roof garden.