Evening star., 1941-03-25
Of Stars, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory, Field
And Study
By Thomas r. Henry.

A scarcity of some of the most essen
tial drugs and widely used spices is
developing in the United States.
Normally they come from Central
and Southern Europe where they are
gathered in the woods and fields by
peasant families The money derived
from them is very small. Most could
be grown in this country, according to
drug experts of the United States De-
partment of Agriculture, were it not
that seeds of some OF the most essential
are practically unobtainable and cost,
in certain cases, as high as 5000 pound.
The prices are bound to 60 up but
the Federal experts warn, the amounts
needed in most cases are too small to
justify extensive cultivation and the
| prices are bound to fall back to normal
as soon as the war is over. Fortunately,
various American drug houses have
maintained experimental plots which
will serve as nuclei for more extensive
paintings.
There was a boom in drug raising
during the first world war but most OF
the experiments were abandoned a few
years after the armistice as European
supplies began to pour into the United
States again.
The actual supplies needed, according
to Agriculture Department experts, are
minute, but some OF them are absolutely
essential to the health of the American
people. Drugs are administered they
point out, in such small doses that a
four dc Cf Of all
could possibly be used in legitimate
medical practice in a year They are
measured in grains and ounces rather
than in bushels, as are other agricul-
tural products. There is likely to grow
up false idea of the amounts necessary
The two best-known drugs of which
a scarcity is threatened are atropine
and the closely related hyoscyamine-
obtained respectively, from the plants
belladonna and henbane.
Both can be grown in this country,
but since 1913 almost the entire supply
has been imported from Central Europe
During the first world war they were
grown in plots of several acres in Min
nesota. Michigan, Indiana, New Jersey
and Pennsylvania. Immediately with
the return of normal prices for the
European material after the war these
paintings proved Improbable
Atropine, obtained from the highly
poisonous belladonna plant, is one of
medicines most essential drugs. 1t is
used as a heart stimulant, as a pain
killer and-most familiarly of all-in
eye examinations. 1t has the unique
property of temporarily paralyZing the
involuntary muscles, causing wide
dilation OF the pupil OF the eye
Closely relate to it is hyoscyamine
obtained from the weed henbane, COM
mon throughout Great Britain where
it grows in waste places and on rubbish
heaps. 1t is an essential heart remedy
and pain killer 1t has been imported
chiefly from India. Both belladonna
and henbane could be grown easily
enough in this country, but, Department
of Agriculture chemists report, the supply
Of seed is almost at the vanishing point.
Much of the concern over a scarcity
of third essential drug, the powerful
heart stimulant digitalis, is unjustifed,
the Federal drug experts say. 1t is
derived from a common European
flower the foxglove, which is familiar
in old-fashioned American gardens.
Most of it has been imported from the
countries bordering the Mediterranean,
from which no further supplies can be
expected, and recent report was that
the price of seed in the United States
had risen to 5000 pound
Fortunately, the flower grows wild
over much of the Northwest and during
the past few years farm families have
made spare-time money by collecting
it for some. of the big Eastern drug
houses. Those who start planting it
on large scale will lose for, according
to the Department of Agriculture about
55 acres will supply all the digitalis
which has been imported.
A little more serious is the spice situa-
ton and the supplies of annis, coriander,
caraway and sage The first two are
grown chiefly in France and Bulgaria.
Poland and the Netherlands have
supplied most of the caraway, while
most of the sage used in American cook
ing has been grown in the Yugoslavian
province of Dalmatia.
All can be grown, so far as soil and
climate CO. in the United States. The
harvesting. however, requires slow, mo-
notonous hand labor which is very ex-
pensive in the United States.