Chemical examination of eriodictyon. [Pt. I] / by Frederick B. Power and Frank Tutin.

  • Frederick Belding Power
Date:
[1906]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: Chemical examination of eriodictyon. [Pt. I] / by Frederick B. Power and Frank Tutin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Presented to the Scientific Section of the American Pharmaceutical Association, at the Fifty-fourth Annual Meeting held at Indianapolis, Ind., September, 1906. _3JUN07 if CHEMICAL EXAMINATION . m 4 n BY FREDERICK B. ODICTYON. POWER, PH. 4, AND FRANK TUTIN. [A contribution from the Wellcome Chemical Research Laboratories, London.] Eriodictyon was first officially recognized by the United States Pharma- copoeia in the edition of 1890, and was retained in the eighth decennial revision (1905) of that work, where it is defined as “the dried leaves of Eriodictyon californicum (Hooker and Arnott), Greene.” It does not appear to have been included in any other national pharmacopoeia. A systematic description of the plant, under the title of Eriodictyon glutinosum, Benth., is given in the “ Synoptical Flora of North America,” by Asa Gray, Vol. II., Part I., p. 176, New York, 1878. It is also de- scribed in Jepson’s “Flora of Western Middle California,” p. 440, where it is stated that the generic name is derived from the Greek words ei-ion, wool, and diktuon, a net, by reason of the netted, woolly undersurface of the leaves. Various popular names have been given to the plant, such as “Yerba Santa,” “Mountain Balm,” “Consumptives’ Weed,” “Bears’ Weed,” and “Gum Bush.” One of the earliest notices in pharmaceutical literature of Eriodictyon californicum was a paper by Henry S. Wellcome,* which was illustrated by some excellent drawings. In that paper a description was given of the plant, together with indications of its medicinal uses, and the preparations adapted for its administration. It was also noted that the leaves yield from 20 to 30 per cent, of resin, which appeared to consist of several dis- tinct substances, but these were not further examined chemically. Charles Mohr,j in 1879, published a paper entitled “ Analysis of Erio- dictyon californicum, but this examination appears to have been con- ducted for the most part writh only ten grams of the air-dried herb, and the results were therefore of correspondingly limited value. He states to have ascertained the presence of a little volatile oil ; a bitter, acrid resin, soluble in ether; an inert resin, which was extracted by alcohol; tannic acid and coloring matter; a peculiar glucoside of the tannic acid series, but not more definitely characterized ; gum, etc. The therapeutic value of the drug was attributed by him to the acrid resin which is soluble in ether. J. Moeller \ has given a description of the anatomy of eriodictyon leaves, in which he notes that the parenchyma is free from tannin, and that strong alcohol extracts from 30 to 40 per cent, of resin of a tolu-like odor. * “The Pharmacist,” Chicago, Feb., 1876, p. 33, and Proc. A. Ph. A., 1876, 24, p. 134. t Proc. A. Ph. A., 1879, 27, p. 736. X Ibid., 1884,^, p. 141.