ENTIRELY GONE OUT USEFUL PLANT ?ARTEMISIA CINA R. B. Saxena

The species subjected to the study belong to Asteraceae family, Artemisia genus found in Romania`s spontaneous flora. Artemisia cina plant is a hardy shrub, perennial and flowering in the autumn. The drug is made up of undeveloped flowers, calyces and fragments of peduncles, mixed with foreign matters. It is imported from Barbary and Levant; the later being deemed the best, being less adulterated, and of a greenish hue, and smooth; while that from Barbary is grey and downy. The sementine or worm-powder is not gathered like our seeds. The plant grows in the meadows, and must be ripen; and mischief is that, as it grows near to maturity, the wind scatters a good part of it among the grass, where it is lost, and this makes it so dear. As they dare not touch it with the hand, for frar of making it spoil the sooner, when they would gather what was left in the ear, they have recourse to this expedient : they take two hand-baskets, and walking along the meadows sweep the basket, the one form right to left, the other form left to right, as if they were mowing; by this means the seed is shaking out into the baskets. The adulterations are the seeds of the Tansey ( Tanacetum vulgare ) and the mugwort ( Artemisia vulgaris ). The later are known from being of bright yellow colour, and resembling powered hay. Key Words: Artemisia cina, Geographical area, Asteraceae, Popular cultural, Chromosome, Santonin, Substitute