Pharmacographia : a history of the principal drugs of vegetable origin, met with in Great Britain and British India / by Friedrich A. Flückiger and Daniel Hanbury.

  • Friedrich August Flückiger
Date:
1874
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Pharmacographia : a history of the principal drugs of vegetable origin, met with in Great Britain and British India / by Friedrich A. Flückiger and Daniel Hanbury. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    RADIX CIMICIFUGJ'. \ 5 H-lobed, radical ]eave,s. It grows at elevations of 80UU to 13,U0U feet iii the temperate regions of the Western Himalaya, as in Simla, Kumaon and Kashmir. History—We have not met with any ancient account of this drug, which however is stated by O'Shaughnessy ^ to have been long celebrated in Indian medicine as a tonic and aphrodisiac. It has recently attracted some attention on account of its powers as an antiperiodic in fevers, and has been extensively prescribed by European physicians in India. Description—The tuberous roots of A. luterofliyllum are ovoid, oblong, and downward-tapering or obconical; they vary in length from \ to 1^ inches and in diameter from, y^^ to ^ of an inch, and w'eigh from 5 to 45 grains. They are of a light ash colour, wrinkled and marked with scars of rootlets, and have scaly rudiments of leaves at the summit. Internally they are pure white and farinaceous. A transverse section shows a homogeneous tissue with 4 to 7 yellowish vascular bundles. In a longitudinal section these bundles are seen to traverse the root from the sear of the stem to the opposite pointed end, here and there giving ofi' a rootlet. The taste of the root is simply bitter with no acridity. Microscopic Structure—The tissue is formed of large angular thin-walled cells loaded with starch which is either in the form of isolated or compound granules. The vasc^ilar bundles contain numerous spiroid vessels which seen in transverse section appear arranged so as to form about four rays. The outer coat of the root is made up of about six rows of compressed, tabular cells with faintly brownish walls. Chemical Composition—The root contains a well-defined alkaloid of intensely bitter taste recently discovered by Broughton,^ who assigns to it the formula C^^H'^'^N^O^, obtained from concurrent analyses of a platinum salt. The absence in the drug of aconitine has been proved by medical experience.^ Uses—The drug is stated to have proved a valuable remedy in intermittent and other paroxysmal fevers. In ordinary intermittents it may be given in powder in 20-grain doses. As a simple tonic the dose is 5 to 10 grains thrice a day. Substitutes—The native name Atis is applied in India to several other drugs, one of which is an inert tasteless root commonly referred to Asparagus sarmentosus L. In Kunawar the tubers of Aconitum Napellus L. are dug up and eaten as a tonic, the name atis being- applied to them as well as to those of A. heteroiJhyllum^ RADIX CIMICIFUG^. Radix Actcece racemosce ; Black Snake-root, Black Cohosh, Bughane. Botanical Origin—Cimicifuga racemosa Elliott {Actcea racemosa L.), a perennial herb 3 to 8 feet high, abundant in rich woods in Canada and the United States, extending southward to Florida. It much ^ Bengal Dispensatory, 1842. 167. * Pharm. of India, 1868. 4. 434. ^ Information communicated bv Mr. B. * Hooker and Thomson (on the authority in private letter, 10 Oct. 1873. of Munro) Flor. Ind. 1855. 58.