Medicine: Dwindling Herbs

There’s rosemary, that’s for sneezing. . . . And pansies, for a purge. There’s fennel for flatulence, and columbin for dysentery.

This modern version of Ophelia’s plaint could still be sung by mad-eyed U.S. pharmacists. But not much longer. For the supply of many herb-grown medicines is dwindling, and some prices have shot up as much as 200%. Synthetic drugs, such as arsenic compounds for syphilis, or sulfa drugs for infections, are still plentiful, but of the 300 plants commonly used in medicine, only 31 are grown commercially in the U.S. and those in small quantities. Many precious herbs could be grown in the U.S. and in South America, but their successful culture would take years of careful breeding, would bring little profit. Besides, domestic plants sometimes yield weaker drugs than their ancient foreign relatives.

Supplies of opium and quinine are shrinking so rapidly that the Government has stored three years’ supply of each in the vaults of the Treasury Building in Washington. Opium is perhaps the most important drug used by doctors. Formerly, the U.S. imported over 150,000 Ib. of opium a year from Turkey, Yugoslavia, Germany; opium poppies are not commercially grown at all in the U.S. Quinine, a specific for malaria, comes from the bark of cinchona trees in the Dutch East Indies; no substitute is quite so good. Other dwindling drugs: ^ Belladonna, made from the deadly nightshade, was formerly imported from Yugoslavia, Italy, Russia. A minuscule amount is grown in the U.S. During World War I about 300 tons a year were produced at home, but after the war the business did not pay. It is slowly picking up again, may produce enough for U.S. needs by 1942. Belladonna is used for ailments of the intestinal and respiratory tracts, the circulatory system, dilating the pupils for eye examination, treating shaking palsy. Last week the Journal of the American Medical Association announced that domestic belladonna — what there is of it — is just as strong as foreign in treating cases of palsy.

^ Digitalis, a powerful heart stimulant used as a folk remedy for centuries, is derived from the purple foxglove. Most of it was imported from Germany, Belgium, France and Italy, but none has entered the U.S. since last January. Digitalis is one of the most difficult drugs to manufacture: foxglove leaves, which contain the drug, begin to deteriorate as soon as they are separated from the plant, must be dried at once at high temperatures, then powdered. There are foxglove farms in about ten places in the northern U.S., capable of producing 1,000 Ib. an acre.

^ Ergot, a fungus which grows in rye kernels, contains a score of medicinal factors. It is used mostly to start contractions of the uterus at childbirth. The fungus is difficult to separate from rye husks, is expensive to produce. Most of it came from Europe. About 20,000 Ib. were produced in the Middle West last year.