STUDIES ON THE CHINESE SPECIES OF STRYCHNOS Ⅰ. STRYCHNOS PIERRIANA A. W. HILL

Strycknos pierriana A. W. Hill is one of the Strychnos species growing wild in the southern region of Yunnan province. Detailed botanical descriptions of the plant togather with morphological and histological characters of the seed are given with illustrations. Paperchromatography of the alkaloidal extracts obtained from the seed, pericarp, stem and leaf of the plant showed that all these parts contain strychnine and brucine. Assayed by the method of Chinese Pharmacopoeia 1953, the seeds contain 1.34% of strychnine, while the pericarp, stem and leaf contain only about one-tenth of it. It is recommended that the seeds of Strychnos pierriana may be used as a suitable raw material for the extraction of the alkaloid strychnine.