Collecting plant material for pharmaceutical testing

Abstract

Since 1961, I have been collecting plant miiaterial in the South Pacific for pharmaceutical testing in the United States. Having had no previous experience in collecting plant samnples, other than herbarium specimens, I have had to work out a number of techniques in the field. Several were tried, but only a small fraction of these proved to be suitable. None of the techniques described in this paper are necessarily original or difficult. They do represent, however, experiences that could be beneficially shared with other collectors. The samples collected ranged in size from lOg to 25kg and consisted of every conceivable type of plant material, from dry and fibrous to very succulent. Collecting has been both local (New Zealand) and overseas (New Caledonia, Samoa, Fiji, etc.). The former area has presented few problems, the latter many. With the exception of a fivemonth stay in Samoa, collecting in the islands has been limited to a fortnight each trip. This, necessarily, puts a premium on time; and since transportation froimi New Zealand is by air, only a linmited quantity of equipment could be taken. Basically, the idea was to dry the plant parts as quickly as possible so that they would not decompose between time of collectinig and testing. Very often, this time has been as long as three months. Initial or exploratory samples have ranged in size from lOg to 908g (2 lb). Samples of less than 50g could usually be obtained from a generous herbariumti specimen. Overcollecting, which was not a serious problen with samples of this size, could result in a serious waste of timle when collecting larger samiples, as more mlaterial would be carried froimi the bush and more time would be required for drying. For miiore efficient col-