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:: 1879

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 London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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$the greater part of the Mediterranean regions and in the Canary Islands, but whether in all instances truly indigenous is question- able. It is cultivated to some extent in Puglia, very little now near Montpellier. History—Stavesacre was well known to the ancients. It is the ayporept] (TTa(j)h of Nicander/ the <TTa<f>h aypia of Dioscorides,' and Alexander Trallianus,* the Staphisagria or Herba j)edicnlaria of Scribonius Largus/ the Astaphis agria or StaphAs of Pliny.'^ The last-named author mentions the use of the powdered seeds for destroying vermin on the head and other parts of the body. The drug continued in use during the middle ages. Pietro Cres- cenzio, who lived in the 13th century, mentions the collection of the seeds in Italy; and Simon Januensis,' physician to Pope Nicolas IV. (a.D, 1288—1292), describes them—p)ropter exceUentem operationem in caputpurgio. Description—The fruit consists of three downy follicles, in each of which about 12 seeds are closely packed in two rows. The seeds (which alone are found in commerce) are about 3 lines in length and rather less in width ; they have the form of a very irregular 4-sided pyramid, of which one side, much broader than the others, is distinctly vaulted. They are sharp-angled, a little flattened, and very rough, the testa being both wrinkled and deeply pitted. The latter is blackish- brown, dull and earthy-looking, rather brittle, yet not hard. It encloses a soft, whitish, oily albumen with a minute embryo at its sharper end. The seeds have a bitter taste and occasion a tingling sensation when chewed. Ten of them weigh about 6 grains. Microscopic Structure — The epidermis of the seed consists of one layer of large cells, either nearly cubical or longitudinally extended: hence the wrinkles of the surface. The brown walls of these cells are moderately thickened by secondary deposits, which may be made very obvious by macerating thin sections in a solution of chromic acid, 1 p. in 100 p. of water. By this treatment numerous crystals after a short time make their appearance,—without doubt the chromate of one of the alkaloids of staphisagria. The outer layer of the testa is made up of thin-walled narrow cells, which become larger near the edges of the seed and in the superficial wrinkles. They contain a small number of minute starch granules and are not altered on addition of a salt of iron. The interior layer exhibits a single row of small, densely-packed cells. The albumen is composed of the usual tissue loaded with granules of albuminoid matter and drops of fatty oil. Chemical Composition — Brandes (1819) and Lassaigne and Feneulle (1819) have shown this drug to contain a basic principle. Erdmann in 1864 assigned it the formula C-''H^NO''; he obtained it to the extent of 1 per mille in crystals, soluble in ether, alcohol, ' 0. kSchneider, Nicandrea, Lips. 1856. ^ DeCompositioneMedicamentorum,c.\&5. 271. 'Lib. xxiii. c. 13. - De Mat. Med. lib. iv. c. 153. ^ Libro della Ayrkultura, Venet. (1511) Puschmann's edition (quoted in tlie lib. vi. c. 108.$