Скачать или смотреть Adulteration of Natural drugs

An inferior drug is a substandard drug, which contains less quantity of the active principle.
If the leaves of any Datura stramonium sample contain less than 0.25 percent of total alkaloids, they constitute an inferior Stramonium drug, which is regarded as an adulterated one.
A deteriorated drug is one in which the active constituents have been partially destroyed by over aging, moisture, heat, fungi, and insects or by other means.
Examples of such drugs, which are regarded as adulterated,
include hardened powdered Squill,
over roasted Coffee beans,
mouldy Ergot,
wormy Rhubarb and
rancid Lard.
Replacement by exhausted drugs :
Particularly, this is observed in case of costly drugs such as
cloves,
saffron,
tea,
fennel,
ginger etc.
These drugs are exhausted for their active constituents and reused with genuine drugs after proper treatment Exhausted
saffron is colored artificially, while ginger is mixed with starch and colored to produce proper shade.
The fictitious nutmegs are made from mineral matter pressed into moulds and flavoured.
2. Substitution with Similar but Inferior drug The harvesting of cultivated drug, when it has not reached minimum standard of quality, yields inferior drug.
The common example of substitution is adulteration of cloves by mother cloves.
Saffron is adulterated with dried flowers of Carthamus tinctorius (Safflower).
Digitalis containing very less amount of glycosides is used as diluent in preparation of prepared digitalis leaves, containing higher percentage of glycosides.
3. Substitution by artificially manufactured substitutes : This type of adulteration is observed in case of drugs which are costly.
Paraffin wax is tinged yellow and substituted for yellow bees wax,
while artificial invert sugar is mixed with honey.
4. Substitutions by sub-standard commercial varieties :
Red chilies' i.e. Capsicum frutescens (Capsicum minimum) are substituted by Capsicum annum,
while Gentiana lutea is substituted by Picrorrhiza kurroa.
The substitution of Alexandrian senna with Arabian senna,
and substitution of rhubarb with many species of Rumex
other examples. Nux-vomica seed (Strychnos nux-vomica) are adulterated with Strychnos nuxblanda or Strychnos potatorum seed.
5. Presence of organic matter obtained from the same plant :
In this case, advantage of similar colour, odour and constituents is taken into consideration and other parts of the same plant are added to genuine drug;
e.g., cloves are mixed with clove stalks,
while caraway and anethum fruits are mixed with other parts of inflorescence.