COLLECTION AND CURING OF DRUGS.
Too much emphasis can not be placed upon the importance of carefully and thoroughly drying all crude drugs, whether roots, herbs, leaves, barks, flowers, or seeds. If insufficiently dried, they will heat and become moldy in shipping, and the collector will find his goods rejected by the drug dealer and have all his trouble for nothing.
Another important matter to be considered in collecting drugs for market is freedom from foreign substances. All drugs should be clean and wholesome looking and contain no admixture of fragments of other plants, stones, dirt, or other impurities. A bright natural color is extremely desirable in leaves, herbs, and flowers, and adds much to the salability of the product. This can be readily brought about by giving careful attention to proper drying in the shade (not in direct sunlight), and by protection from dew or rain by placing the drugs under cover at nightfall or whenever necessary. Roots may be cleaned by washing, but leaves, herbs, and flowers should never be washed.
It is important also to collect drugs in proper season only. Neglect in this respect will bring nothing but disappointment to the gatherer, as drugs collected out of season not only are not acceptable to the dealer on account of inferior medicinal qualities, but there will also be, in the case of roots, a greater amount of shrinkage in a root dug during the growing season than will take place when it is collected after growth has ceased.
The collector should be sure that the plant he is collecting is the right one. There are many plants that closely resemble one another, yet one may possess medicinal properties and the other be absolutely useless. Again, a plant may contain very poisonous principles, and if represented to be something else, it might of course do untold injury. It would therefore be best, where any doubt exists, to send a specimen of the entire plant, including leaves, flowers, and fruits, to a drug dealer or to the nearest State experiment station for identification.
ROOTS.
Roots should never be collected during the growing season, as at that time they are deficient in medicinal properties, and they also shrink more in drying and weigh less than when gathered at full maturity.
The roots of annual plants should be dug just before the flowering period, and those of biennial or perennial plants after the tops have dried, the former in the autumn of the first year and the latter in the fall of the second or third year.
After the roots have been dug the adherent soil should be well shaken from them, and all foreign particles, such as stones, dirt, roots and parts of other plants, should be removed. If the roots can not be sufficiently cleared of soil by shaking, they should be thoroughly washed in clean water. It does not pay to be careless in this matter. The presence of soil increases the weight of the roots, but the intending purchaser is not willing to pay for the weight of the dirt, and grades the uncleaned drug accordingly. It is the clean, bright-looking root that will bring a good price.
After washing, the roots should be carefully dried. This can best be accomplished by exposing them to light and air (not direct sunlight) on racks or shelves, or on clean, well-ventilated barn floors or lofts. They should be spread out thinly and turned occasionally from day to day until completely cured. When this point is reached, in perhaps three to six weeks, the roots will snap readily when bent. During the curing process the roots, if dried out of doors, should be placed under shelter at night and upon the approach of rainy weather.
With some roots additional preparation is required, such as slicing and the removal of fibrous rootlets. Wherever this is necessary mention will be made of it under the descriptions of the different plants. In general, it may be said that large roots should always be split or sliced when green in order to facilitate drying.
BARKS.
The plants considered in this bulletin do not furnish medicinal barks, but inasmuch as there are certain sections of the country where trees furnishing such barks are rather abundant, directions for their collection may not be out of place here.
Barks of trees should be gathered in spring, when the sap begins to flow, but may also be peeled in winter. In the case of the coarser barks (as elm, hemlock, poplar, oak, pine, and wild cherry) the outer layer is shaved off before the bark is removed from the tree, which process is known as “rossing.” Only the inner bark of these trees is used medicinally. Barks may also be cured by exposure to sunlight. Moisture must be avoided.
LEAVES AND HERBS.
Leaves and herbs should be collected when the plants are in full flower. It is very desirable that they retain their bright green color after curing, and this can be done by careful drying in the shade. In the collection of leaves the whole plant may be cut and the leaves may be stripped from it, rejecting the stems as much as possible. In the case of herbs the coarse and large stems should be rejected and only the flowering tops and more tender stems and leaves included. All grasses, bits of other plants, and other foreign substances should be carefully removed, as well as dead, shriveled, diseased, and discolored specimens.
Both leaves and herbs should be spread out in thin layers on clean floors, racks or shelves, in the shade but where there is free circulation of air, and turned frequently until thoroughly dry. Moisture will darken them. The same precautions that are necessary in curing roots apply here also, so far as placing them under cover to avoid dew or rain is concerned.
FLOWERS.
Flowers are collected when they first open or immediately after—not when they are beginning to fade. To preserve the bright natural color as nearly as possible they should be carefully dried in the shade, in the same manner as directed for leaves and herbs.
SEEDS.
Seeds should be gathered just as they are ripening, before the seed pods open, and should be winnowed in order to remove fragments of stems, leaves, and shriveled specimens.