HeadAke Powder

A Manual Materia Medica Pharmacology. Comprising All Organic And Iinorganic Drugs Which Are Or Have Been Official In The United States Pharmacopia by David M. K. Culbreth, Pn.G., M.D. 1917 - Lemon Balm

Mclis'sa officinalis, Melissa, Balm.—The leaves and tops, official 1840-1900; Asia Minor, S. Europe. Perennial herb with fragrance of lemons, growing in waste places; steins several, quadrangular, .3-1 M. (1-3°) high, brauchet! at base, pubescent; flowers yellowish-white, purplish, calyx 5-toothed, tubular, bell-shaped; corolla bilabiate, 4 stamens, leaves. 5 Cm. (,2') long, petiolate. ovate, obtuse, crenate, hairy, glandular, branches square; fragrant, aromatic, astringent, bitter; contains volatile oil 25 p. c, bitter principle, tannin, gum; solvents: diluted alcohol, boiling water. Carminative, diaphoretic, stimulant, antispasmodic; used as a refreshing drink; when cold for febrile affections, when hot acts slightly on the skin. Dose, gr. 15-60 (1—4 Gm.); water (aqua melisste), leaves (1) distilled with water (10); compound spirit (spiritus melissa? compositus balm 14 + lemon peel 12, nutmeg 6, cinnamon 3, clove 3, alcohol lot), water 250, distil MO parts; fluidextract, Щху-М (1-4 Ml. (Cc.)); infusion, 3j-2 $0-60 Ml. (Cc.)); oil, mj-2 (.06-.13 Ml. (Cc.)).

King's American Dispensatory By Harvey Wickes Felter and John Uri Lloyd 1898 - Willow Bark

The bark of Salia, alba, Linné. Nat. Ord.—Salicaceae. CoMMON NAMEs: Willow, White willow, European willow. ILLUSTRATION: Bentley and Trimen, Med. Plants, 234. Botanical Source.—The white willow is a tree 30 to 80 feet in height, with many round, widely spreading branches, silky when young, and a thick, brown bark, full of cracks; that of the smaller branches smooth and greenish. The leaves are alternate, on short petioles, lanceolate, or elliptic-lanceolate, broadest a little above the middle, pointed, tapering toward each end, acutely serrate, with the lower serratures glandular; both sides of a grayish, somewhat glaucous, green, beautifully silky, with close-pressed, silvery hairs, especially on the under sur face, and which is very dense and brilliant on the uppermost, or youngest leaves; the lowermost on each branch, like the bracteas, are smaller, more obtuse, and greemer. Stipules variable, either roundish or oblong, small, and often wanting. The flowers and leaves appear coincidently. The aments are borne on short stalks, with 3 or 4 spreading, leafy bracteas, and are terminal, cylindrical, and elongated. Scales brown, elliptical, lanceolate, pubescent at the margin ; those of the barren aments narrower toward the base; of the fertile, dilated and convo lute in that part. Stamens 2, yellow, rather longer than the scales, with 1 obtuse gland before and 1 behind; filaments hairy in their lower part. Anthers round ish and yellow. The ovary is very nearly sessile, green, smooth, ovate-lanceolate, bluntish, and longer than the scale. Style short; stigmas short, thick, 2-parted, recurved, and nearly sessile. Capsule ovate, brown, smooth, and rather small (L.—W.—G.). History and Description.—The white or European willow is a large tree of rapid growth, native of Europe, and introduced into this country. Its flowers appear from March to June. The bark, which is the medicinal part, is readily removed from the stem during the months of July, August, and September. The dried bark is met with more or less quilled, pliable and tough, with a faint odor, and a bitter taste, combined with some astringency. Water takes up its medici mal properties, the decoction having a dark-reddish color, and which is precipi tated abundantly by gelatin, carbonates of potassium, and ammonium. Lime water gives at first a blue, and then a buff-colored precipitate. Ferric chloride throws down a dark-green tannate of iron. If the decoction contains much sali cin, concentrated sulphuric acid reddens it. This species belongs to the group of willows known as the crack willows. A species much resembling it is the Salix fragilis, Linné. There are numerous species of Salix, many of which, undoubt edly, possess analogous medicinal virtues. The best rule to follow is to select those whose barks possess great bitterness, combined with astringency. Among those which have been used are the S. alba, S. caprea, S. russelliana, S. purpwrea, S. migra, and S. pentandra. The Weeping willow, or Babylonian willow (Salix baby lomica) is cultivated as an ornamental tree. Chemical Composition.—White-willow bark, according to Pelletier and Cav entou, consists of bitter, yellow coloring matter, green fatty matter, tannic acid, resin, etc. The chief constituent, however, as with all the willows, is the glucosid Salicin (see Salicinwm). Tannin is also prominent, and is more abundant in the crack willows, while salicin seems to predominate in the purple willows. Johan son (1875) showed the presence of benzohelicin (C.H.O.), a glucosid previously ob tained (Piria, 1851) by acting upon populin with nitric acid (compare Salicinum). 1702 SALIX NIGRA. Robert W. Beck (Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1891, p. 581) obtained from the bark of Salia; lucida, 1.09 per cent of salicin; from the leaves, 0.3 per cent. The bark of S. alba yielded 0.56 per cent, that of S. migra, 0.73 per cent of salicin. The leaves of S. alba contained 6.48 per cent of tannin, while the quantity of tannin in the barks of S. alba and S. migra varied from 3.3 to 4.3 per cent. Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage.—Willow bark is tonic, antiperiodic, and an astringent bitter. It has been given in intermittents, dyspepsia, connected with debility of the digestive organs, passive hemorrhages, chronic mucows discharges, in comvalescence from acute diseases, and in worms. Although Occasionally substituted for the cinchona bark, it is inferior in activity. In chronic diarrhaea and dysentery, the tonic and astringent combination of the willow renders it very eligible. It may be given in substance, in doses of 1 drachm of the powder, repeated as indi cated; or of the decoction, 1 or 2 fluid ounces, 4 or 5 times a day. The decoction has also proved efficient as a local application to fowl and indolent wicers.

The Dispensatory of the United States of America, 1918, Edited by Joseph P. Remington, Horatio C. Wood and others. - Rosemary

Rosemary. Rosmarinus. Folia Rosmarini, s. Roris Marini. Folia Anthos. Feuilles de Romarin, Fr. Cod. Rosmarin, Rosmarinblätter, G. Rosmarino, It. Romero, Sp.—" The leaves of Rosmarinus officinalis (Fam. Labiatae)." U. S., 1880. Rosemary is a small evergreen shrub, with an erect stem, divided into many long, slender, ash-colored branches. The leaves are numerous, sessile, opposite, about 2.5 cm. long, rigid, linear, entire, obtuse at the summit, folded backward at the edges, of a firm consistence, smooth and green on the upper surface, whitish, woolly, and glandular beneath. The flowers are axillary, pale blue or white. The plant grows spontaneously in the countries which border on the Mediterranean, and is cultivated in the gardens of Europe and this country. The leaves, which have already been described, have a strong balsamic odor, which is possessed, but in a less degree, by all parts of the plant. Their taste is bitter and camphorous. These properties are imparted partially to water, completely to alcohol, and depend on the volatile oil. (See Oleum Rosmarini.) The tops lose a portion of their sensible properties by drying, and become inodorous by age. Rosemary is gently stimulant, and has been considered emmenagogue. In the practice of this country it is scarcely used; but in Europe, especially on the continent, it enters into the composition of several syrups, tinctures, etc., to which it imparts its agreeable odor and excitant property. It is sometimes added to sternutatory powders, and is used externally in connection with other aromatics in the form of fomentation. In some countries it is employed as a condiment; and its flowers, which are much sought after by the bees, impart their peculiar flavor to the honey of the districts in which the plant abounds.

The Dispensatory of the United States of America, 1918, Edited by Joseph P. Remington, Horatio C. Wood and others. - Valerian

"The dried rhizome and roots of Valeriana officinalis Linné (Fam. Valerianaceae)." U. S. "Valerian Rhizome is the dried rhizome and roots of Valeriana officinalis, Linn. Collected in the autumn." Br. Valerianae Rhizoma, Br.; Valerian Root; Radix Valerianae Minoris, R. Valerianae Sylvestris, R. Valerianae Montanae; Common, Garden, Cat's or Great Wild Valerian, All-heal, Summer Heliotrope, Herb Bennet, Vandal Root; Valeriane officinale, Fr. Cod.; Racine de Valeriane, Valeriane, Fr.; Radix Valerianae, P. G.; Baldrian, Wilde Baldrianwurzel, Baldrianwurzel, G.; Valeriana, It.; Valeriana (Rizoma de), Sp. Official or great wild valerian (Valeriana officinalis) is a large, handsome, herbaceous plant, with a perennial rhizome, and an erect, round, channelled stem, from two to four feet high, furnished with opposite pinnate leaves, and terminating in flowering branches. The leaves of the stems are attached by abort, broad sheaths; the radical leaves are larger and long petiolate. In the former the leaflets are lanceolate and partially dentate, in the latter elliptical and deeply serrate. The flowers are small, white or rose-colored, agreeably odorous, and disposed in terminal corymbs interspersed with pear-shaped bracts. The number of the stamens is three. The fruit is a capsule containing one oblong-ovate, compressed seed. The plant is a native of Europe, where it grows either in damp woods and meadows or on dry elevated grounds. As found in these different situations, it presents characters so distinct as to have induced some botanists to make two varieties. Dufresne makes four, of which three prefer marshy situations. The variety which affects a dry soil (sylvestris L. Ph.) is not more than two feet high, and is distinguished by its narrow leaves. The valerian plant is cultivated to some extent in New England and New York, and in Europe, in England and Holland. In this country it will grow in light, well-prepared, and well-drained soil, and is propagated by dividing the roots in the fall and setting these portions acids mentioned, forming corresponding esters with them: (4) at from 285° to 290° C. (545°-554° F.), a greenish, syrupy oil, which when rectified is colorless, and seems to have the composition of a borneol oxide, (C10H17)2O. Schimmel & Co. (Schim. Rep., April, 1897) summarize the most recent researches upon valerian oil from different sources. In the oil from Dutch and Thuringian roots, the amount varying from 0.5 to 1 per cent., they find pinene, camphene, borneol, bornyl formate, bornyl acetate, and bornyl isovalerate, together with a sesquiterpene and an alcohol, C10H20O2. In the oil from Japanese roots (amounting to from 6 to 6.5 per cent.) (Kesso oil), they find pinene, camphene, dipentene, terpineol, borneol, bornyl acetate, bornyl isovalerate, and kessyl acetate. Trommsdorff ascertained the existence in the oil of valeric acid. This acid is a colorless volatile liquid, of an oleaginous consistence, having an odor analogous to that of valerian, and a very strong, sour, disagreeable taste. It is soluble in thirty parts of water, and in all proportions in ether and alcohol. It combines with salifiable bases, forming soluble salts, which retain, in a diminished degree, the odor of the acid. (J. P. C., xx, 316.) The acid does not pre-exist in the oil, but is produced by the decomposition of its borneol ester. Valeric acid is obtained by distilling the impure oil with magnesium carbonate, decomposing by sulphuric acid the magnesium valerate which remains, and again distilling. The following process by T. and H. Smith, of Edinburgh, avoids the inconvenience of distilling so bulky a root as valerian, while it answers the same purpose as that of Rabourdin. Boil the root for three or four hours with rather more than its bulk of water in which an ounce of sodium carbonate is dissolved for every pound of the root, replacing the water as it evaporates. Express strongly, and boil the residuum twice with the same quantity of water, expressing each time as before. Mix the liquids, add two fluidrachms of strong sulphuric acid for every pound of the root, and distil until three-fourths of the liquid have passed over. Neutralize this with sodium carbonate, concentrate the liquid, decompose the sodium valerate contained in it by sulphuric acid, and collect the valeric acid set free, by a separator, funnel, or by distillation. (A. J. P., xvii, 253.) Lefort obtains the acid by the rapid oxidation of the volatile oil. He distilled 100 parts of the root with 500 of water, 10 of sulphuric acid, and 6 of potassium dichromate, and in this way procured a larger proportion of acid than by any other process. (J. P. C., 3e ser., x, 194.) Uses.—Valerian is used as a sedative to the higher nerve centers in conditions of nervous unrest, hysteria, hypochondriasis, neuralgic pains, and the like. The virtues of the plant seem to depend chiefly on the esters of valeryl which are contained in the volatile oil. According to Chevalier (Nouv. Rem., 1912, xxix, p. 169), the volatile oil of valerian is a depressant to the whole central nervous system, including both the motor and psychical centers of the brain and the motor cells of the spinal cord. The esters contained in this drug are unstable bodies and in the process of drying largely oxidized with the formation of valeric acid. As the latter is practically without physiological action much of the virtue of the plant is lost during the drying process. Probably for this reason preparations of this drug are very uncertain in their activity and valerian has largely fallen into disrepute. Chevalier has introduced the .juice of the fresh root which he asserts is a valuable remedy not only for the conditions mentioned above, but even as a narcotic in insomnia and an anticonvulsant in epilepsy. The dose of this juice, which has been introduced under the name of energetene of valerian, is one to three coffeespoonsful. It appears also to have some slight influence upon the circulation, slowing the heart and increasing its force, and causing a rise in blood pressure, and has been used in the treatment of cardiac palpitations.