An introduction to the study of materia medica : being a short account of the more important crude drugs of vegetable and animal origin : designed for students of pharmacy and medicine / by Henry G. Greenish.

Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An introduction to the study of materia medica : being a short account of the more important crude drugs of vegetable and animal origin : designed for students of pharmacy and medicine / by Henry G. Greenish. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    .&c., not only in the seed, but also in the young shoots and ilower-buds. Amygdalin is closely allied to, but not identical with, lauro- ■cerasin, and is also distinct from a similar glucoside that occurs in the bark of Prunus serotina, Ehrh. Uses.—Bitter almonds are sedative, but as the poisonous hydrocyanic acid yielded by them varies in quantity they are unreliable. They are also employed for flavouring, but they should for a similar reason be irsed with caution. STROPHANTHUS SEEDS (Seniina Strophantlii) Source &C.—The ofticial strophanthus seeds are obtained from Stro'phaiithus Kombe, Oliver (N.O. Apocynacece), a climb- ing plant of considerable size, indigenous to eastern tropical Africa, notably the valley of the Shire river, the Nyanza district, and the Kombe country. An extract prepared from them (and possibly other species of strophanthus) is used in Africa as an arrow poison, specimens of which were sent to England in 1861-64 and recognised by Sharpey (1862) to •contain a cardiac poison. The seeds were examined by Eraser (1885), who isolated the active principle strophanthin, and ■subsequently recommended the seeds as a substitute for fox- glove. The fruit of the plant consists of two follicles about 12 inches in length and 1 inch in breadth, slightly narrowed at the base and tapering at the apex. Each follicle contains, closely packed together, a large number of seeds provided with long- awns. The fruits are collected when ripe, and are sometimes exported after having been freed from their epicarp and fleshy mesocarp. More commonly the seeds, separated from the fruits and deprived of their awns, are sent into commerce, being ■exported chiefly from Somba, Quilimane, Inhambane, and other east African ports. DesCPiption.—These very beautiful seeds are remarkable for the long plumose awn of white silky hairs that is attached to them. The integuments of the seed are prolonged at the apex to a slender ])rittle extension, which is terminated by a liandsome feathery tuft of hairs alDout 2 inches long and L