PLANTAGO.—PLANTAIN. History and Chemical Composition

Plantain is a well-known herb, growing in rich, moist places, in fields, by the roadsides, and in grass plats, and is common in Europe and America. It flowers from May to October. The root has a somewhat sweetish, salty taste; the leaves are bitterish and unsavory. The plant loses its medicinal activity by drying. All its preparations should be made from the freshly-gathered roots and tops. Water or alcohol extracts the virtues of the plant. The leaves contain chlorophyll, resin, wax, albumin, pectin, citric and oxalic acids (Th. Koller, N. Jahrb. f. Pharm., 1868, p. 139). Upon incineration, they leave 12.8 per cent ash. Sugar is present, while alkaloids and glucosids are absent (D. Rosenbaum, Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1886, p. 418). The root, according to Strawinsky (ibid., 1898, p. 189), contains starch, wax, fatty matter, dextrose, saccharose, mucilage, traces of tannin, but no alkaloid or glucosid. The ash was 24.7 per cent, moisture 6.9 per cent.