Colon – Constant Patience Powder

King's American Dispensatory By Harvey Wickes Felter and John Uri Lloyd 1898 - Flax Seed

Flax is an annual plant, very smooth, with a slender fibrous root, and 1 or more straight, round, leafy corymbose stems, 1 or 2 feet in height. The leaves are small, alternate, Sessile, acute, 3-veined, and rather glau cous; the lowermost short and blunt. The flowers are several, large, blue, erect, borne in a terminal, corymbose panicle, on long footstalks. The calyx is persist ent, consists of 5 ovate, acute sepals, which are 3-veined at base, and membra naceous on the margin, The corolla is composed of 5 thin, delicate, roundish, wedge-shaped, crenate petals, which are glossy, have numerous veins, and readily drop off. Stamens 5, straight, and awl-shaped. Anthers 2-celled, and arrow shaped. Ovary ovate, superior; styles 5; Stigmas obtuse. The fruit is a round capsule, 5-celled, the cells nearly divided by a false º:seeds 2 in each cell, ovate, compressed, brown, smooth, and glossy (L.-W.--Torrey and Gray). LINUM. 1147 History.—The native country of flax is unknown, though supposed to be derived from Egypt, or from Central Asia. It has been known from remote antiquity (see Gen. xli., 42, and Ecod. ix, 31). If is now naturalized in nearly all civilized countries. It blossoms from May to August, and matures its seeds early in autumn. The Seeds and their expressed oil are used in medicine. The seeds are described by the U. S. P. as follows: “About 4 or 5 Mm. (; to # inch) long, oblong-ovate, flattened, obliquely pointed at one end, brown, glossy, covered with a transparent, mucilaginous epi thelium, which swells considerably in water; the embryo whitish or pale green ish, with 2 large, oily, plano-convex cotyledons, and a thin perisperm; inodorous; taste mucilaginous, oily, and bitter. Ground limSeed (linseed meal, or flaxseed meal), for medicinal purposes, should be recently prepared, free from unpleasant or rancid odor. When extracted with carbon disulphide, it should yield not less than 25 per cent of fixed oil. The filtered infusion of ground linseed, prepared with boiling water and allowed to cool, has an insipid, mucilaginous taste, and should not be colored blue by iodine T.S. (absence of starch)”—(U. S. P.). In this connection see paper by J. U. Lloyd, on the testing of flaxseed for starch, in the Pharm. Rundschau, 1895, p. 210. Oil-cake (cake-meal, when ground) is the compressed refuse portion remaining after the oil has been pressed out; it contains the mucilage of the husk and all of the nitrogenous matter of the seed in condensed form (about 5 per cent nitro gen), and is therefore used to feed cattle. Starch should be absent from the cake, and the ash should not exceed 5 per cent. The seeds finely ground, furnish a dark, ash-colored powder, flatseed meal, which forms with hot water a tenacious substance, used for luting in chemical operations. For poultices, the official Ground limSeed (Farina lini, or Linseed meal) is the best. Chemical Composition.—The chief constituents of flax seeds are mucilage (about 6 per cent), residing in the epithelial cells of the epidermis, and fixed oil (see Olewnn Limi, linseed oil), contained in the cotyledons (from 25 to 33 per cent; as high as 38 per cent, W. A. Puckner, Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1889, p. 442). Starch is absent in ripe seeds. (An adulteration of linseed meal with 40 per cent of corn meal is on record; see G. M. Beringer, Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1889, p. 167.) The mucilage probably has its origin in the starch occurring in the unripe seeds. When the umbruised seeds are covered with water, a viscid, odorless, and almost tasteless mucilage is obtained, precipitable by alcohol. When deprived of its ash (amounting to 10 per cent), the composition of the mucilage corresponds to the formula C,H, Olo (Tollens & Kirchner, 1874). It is precipitated also by basic ace tate of lead, but not by tannic acid. It is not colored blue by the addition of iodine and sulphuric acid, nor does it redden litmus when in fresh condition. Boiling with diluted Sulphuric acid produces mostly a dextro-rotatory sugar, and about 5 per cent of insoluble cellulose. Nitric acid converts it partly into mucic acid, oxalic acid being likewise formed. Flax seeds contain about 4 per cent of nitrogen, corresponding to about 25 per cent of protein bodies. Part of the nitrogen is due, however, to the presence of a crystallizable, bitter substance formerly believed to be amygdalin, but differen tiated from it as limamarin (Jorissen and Hairs, see Jahresb. der Pharm., 1891, p. 114). The presence of this substance gives rise to the frequently observed formation of hydrocyamic acid in ground flaxseed meal by spontaneous fermenta tion (see A. Jorissen, Jahresb, der Pharm., 1883 and 1894; and W. O. Senior, Pharm. Jour. Trans., 1885, Vol. XVI, p. 514). The seeds contain on an average 3.6 per cent of ash, which is rich in phosphoric acid (Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1881, p. 552). (As regards the manufacture and composition of linseed cake and meal, as well as enumeration of the possible impurities by weeds, etc., consult interesting article in Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1893, p. 195.) Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage.—Flaxseed is used as a demulcent and emollient. An infusion of the entire seeds, an ounce to a quart of water at 100° C. (212°F.), forms a mucilagimous draught which is much employed in ardor wrimar and wrimary diseases, mephritic pains, coughs, colds, colo-rectitis, pulmonary, gastro-enteric, and wrimary inflammations. When not contraindicated, the addition of lemon juice improves the flavor, or it may be sweetened with loaf sugar or honey. An infusion of flaxseed, or of flaxseed meal, forms an excellent laxative injection; 1148 LIQUIDAMBAR. and the meal added to boiling water, and made of the proper consistence, makes an excellent cataplasm (see Cataplasma Lini). Dose of the infusion, 1 or 2 pints daily. Linseed oil in doses of 2 fluid ounces twice a day, is said to have cured severe cases of piles within 2 or 3 weeks; while using it liquors and stimulating diet are to be avoided. It is likewise reputed beneficial when internally admin istered in dysentery, colic, and lumbricus. Used as an enema, it is advantageous in dysentery, hemorrhoids, and ascarides; and combined with lime-water, it forms Carron oil, an excellent application to burms. One pint of linseed oil, combined with 4 ounce each, of oils of origanum and wintergreen, forms a pleasant cathartic; to be given in the same doses as castor oil.

The Family Herbal, 1812, was written by John Hill. - Licorice

Botanical name: Glycyrrhiza glabra Glycyrrhiza. A rough looking plant, cultivated in many places for the sake of the root. It is a yard high or more. The stalk is round, striated, and branched: the leaves are long and large, each is composed of a great many pairs of smaller, standing on a middle rib, with an odd one at the end; these are of an oval figure, of a dusky green colour, and they are clammy to the touch. The flowers are very small and blue, they stand in long spikes, rising from the bosoms of the leaves. The seeds are contained in pods. The root is the part used; and its virtues are very great. It is best fresh taken out of the ground, the sweetness of its taste renders it agreeable, and it is excellent against coughs, hoarsenesses, and shortness of breath. It also works gently by urine, and is of service in ulcerations of the kidneys and urinary passages, acting there as in lungs at once, as a detergent and balsamic. The best way of taking it is by sucking or chewing the fresh root: but it may be taken in infusion, or in the manner of tea. The black substance called liquorice juice, and Spanish liquorice, is made by evaporating a strong decoction of this root. But the fresh root itself is better.

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 - Marshmallow

ALTHAEA. ALTHAEA. Alth»a oflicinalis, j The root deprived of brown, corky layer and Lanne- j small roots, and carefully dried. Habitat. Europe, Western and Northern Asia; naturalized in salt marshes, New England, New York, Australia; cultivated in Europe. Syn. Marsh Mallow Hoot, Marsh Mallow, White Mallow, Mortification Root, Sweetweed, Wymote; Fr. Racine de Guiniauve, Guimauve; Ger. Radix Althiea, Eibischwurzel, Eibisch. Al-thse'a. L. fr. Gr. &6aiva, to heal, cure—i. e., its medicinal qualities (Dioscorides). Of-fl-ci-na'lis. L. see (Asagrcea) ojfficinalis, page 102. PLANT.—Perennial herb .6-1.3 M. (2—4°) high, having several woolly stems; leaves 2.5-7.5 Cm. (1-3') long, serrate, both sides pubescent; flowers large, 2.5-5 Cm. (1-2') in diameter, purple. ROOT, slenderly tapering, 15-30 Cm. (6-12') long, 1-2 Cm. (f-f) thick; usually cut into small pieces, 5 Mm. (5') thick, whitish, longitudinally furrowed, frequently spirally twisted and covered with somewhat loosened bast-fibres (hairy); fracture fibrous (bark), short, granular (wood); internally yellowish-white; bark 1-2 Mm. (^5 iV) thick, porous (due to mucilage cells) and separated from slightly radiating wood by grayish cambium zone; odor slight; taste sweetish, mucilagi nous. POWDER, whitish; microscopically—many starch grains, .003- .02 Mm. (-g-gVs laVffO broad; sclerenchymatous fibres in groups; 392 ORGANIC DRUGS FROM THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM tracheae, few calcium oxalate rosette aggregates. Tests: 1. Macerate 1 Gm. in water 10 Ml. (Cc.) 30 minutes, stir occasionally, filter—pale yellow neutral mucilage, turning deep yellow with a few drops of potas sium hydroxide T. S. ; mucilage should not have a sour or ammoniacal odor. Should be kept in tightly-closed containers, adding occasionally a few drops of chloroform or carbon tetrachloride to prevent insect attack. Solvents: water (cold), dissolving asparagin, mucilage, sugar, (hot), also starch. Dose, 5ss-l (2-4 Gm.). ADULTERATIONS.—ROOT: Belladonna root, when young and peeled, resembles althsra, but distinguished by absence of hair-like bast-fibres, and by possessing visible yellowish wood bundles; okl dark-colored alttuea roots sometimes are whitened with calcium oxide or sulphate, which subside to the bottom ujxm soaking in water, thereby readily being detected; root sometimes mar keted cut in small cubes, render ing admixtures more likely; POW DER: Starchy substances recognized by shape of starch granules. Commercial.-—Plant during first 2 years produces only a tap-root, which soon thereafter becomes tough, woody, inert, and much branched, the branches having little medicinal value; the unscraped root is yellow ish-brown, non-fibrous, and should be collected from cultivated plants, peeled, and dried carefully; leaves and flowers sometimes used. CONSTITUENTS. — Asparagin (al- thein, amido-succinamic acid, aspara- mide) 1-2 p. c., Mucilage (bassorin, althea mucilage, upon which value depends) 35 p. c., Starch 37 p. c., pectin 11 p. c., betaine, sugar 11 p. c., fat 1 .25 p. c., ash 4-8 p. c. Asparagin, .C4H8X2O3 + H2O.—Obtained by putting the thick, viscid mucilage of althtea into a dialyzer, with water outside; asparagin passes into the water, which upon evaporation yields the crystals. These are colorless, neutral, transparent, lustrous, sp. gr. 1.520, soluble in water (47), acids, alkalies, converted by these latter into ammonia and organic acid; therapeutically inactive. Dose, gr. 5-10 (.3-.0 Gm.). PREPARATIONS.—1. Massa Hydrargyri, 15 p. c. 2. Pilulce Ferri Carbonatis, | gr. (.01 Gm.). 3. Pihilcp Phosphori, 1 gr. (.06 Gm.). Unoff. Preps.: Syrup, 5 p. c., dose, 3 H(4-15 Ml. (Cc.)). Decoction, 5 p. c. Ointment. Poultice. Species Althaea (Emollientes, Pectorales). PROPERTIES.—Demulcent, emollient, protective. Fia. 255. —Althwa officinalis. ALTHMA—ALTH&A 393 MALVACE/E USES.—Inflammations of pulmonary, digestive, and urinary organs, mucous membranes; skin eruptions, herpes, psoriasis, enema (decoction) for vaginal and rectal irritation. In pharmacy, the powdered root being very absorbent, is used to harden pills, troches, electuaries, etc. x~~ i a FIG. 256.—Allhcea officinalis: 1, expanded flower; 2, vertical section of flower; 3, stamen; 4, stamen after discharge of pollen; 5, fruit; 6, outside calyx as seen from beneath. The dried leaves (althaea folia) also used medicinally. Allied Plants: 1. Althaa ro'sea, Hollyhock.—Levant. Petals used; formerly culti vated in gardens. Flowers (Flores Mtilrcr Arboreci) 7.5-12.5 Cm. (3-5') broad, nearly sessile, composed of a tomentose calyx and 5 purple petals. Fio. 257.—Althaea: transverse section, magnified 2 diam. Fio. 258.—Malva syhestris: showing flowers, leaves, and fruit. 2. Mal'm syhes'tris. High Mallmr, M. vulga'rii, Common Mallow, and M. rotundifo'lia, Lmv (Running) Mallmc.—The flowers are rose- red, purple, or whitish, but when dried bluish, green with ammonia, red with acids, slight odor; sweetish, mucilaginous taste. 3. Abu'tilon and Hibis'cus species have similar medicinal properties, and mav be used satisfactorily one for the other.

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 - Yellow Dock

Ru'rnex cris'pus, The Yellow Dock.—dried root, official 1800- 1900; Europe, N. America. Compact perennial springing from a yellow fusiform root, which penetrates far into the ground; stem rises annually 1-1.3 M. (3-4°) high; leaves lanceolate, smooth, margins strongly wavy-curled; flowers greenish, racemes. Root, 10-30 Cm. (4-12') long, 6-18 Mm. (|-f ') thick, fusiform, deeply wrinkled, rustybrown—internally whitish with reddish medullary rays; bark rather thick, fracture short; odor slight, peculiar; taste bitter, astringent; contains chrysophanic acid (rumicin, lapathin), nepodin, lapodin, tannin, calcium oxalate, starch. Astringent, alterative, tonic, laxative, antiscorbutic; similar to rhubarb and sarsaparilla; cutaneous erup tions, scorbutic manifestations, itch, scrofula, syphilis, hepatic conges tion, dyspepsia, intermittents; leaves used as a laxative diet, and as spinach. Dose, gr. 15-60 (1-1 Gm.); fluidextract (diluted alcohol), TUxv-60 (1-4 Ml. (Cc.)) ; decoction and ointment also employed.

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

RHAMNUS PURSHIANA (U. S. P.)—CASCARA SAGRADA. The bark of Rhamnus Purshiana, De Candolle (Rhamnus alnifolius, Pursh; Frangula Purshiana, Cooper). Nat. Ord.-Rhamnaceae. CoMMON NAMEs: Chittem bark, Sacred bark. ILLUSTRATION: Hooker, Flora Bor. Amer.,Vol. I, Plate 43. Botanical Source and History.—This is a small tree, found in the Rocky Mountains, and westwardly to the Pacific Ocean, and extending north into Brit Fig. 207. ish America. According to Mr. James G. Steele, the country - i. producing the tree extends over 1000 miles in length. The branches are round and pubescent. The leaves are from 3 to 5 inches long, about one-half as broad, and are borne on leaf stalks nearly an inch in length. When young they are cov ered with a dense pubescence on the under surface, but become glabrous and bright-green when old. In outline, they are broadly elliptical, obtuse, and entire at the base, and generally with a blunt, acute apex. The margin of the leaf is regularly dentate, with numerous small, serrate teeth, except at the base. The lateral veins are many, subparallel, prominent un derneath, and proceed from the midrib at an acute angle. The leaves closely resemble, but are not so slender as those of the Alder buckthorn, or Southern buckthorn, of our southern states (Frangula caroliniana, Gray, or Rhamnus caroliniana, Wal ter). The flowers are small, white, and appear after the leaves have matured; they are borne in close, umbellar clusters, on pubescent peduncles, slightly longer than the leaf-stalks. The pedicels are short, about + inch in length when in flower, but, in fruit, elongate to an inch or more. The calyx is small, 5-cleft, and pubescent on the outer surface. The petals are 5, minute, white, shorter than the calyx lobes, and 2-cleft at the apex. The stamens are 5, opposite, and embraced by the con º cave petals. The pistil, which is much shorter than the calyx Genuine Cascara tube, consists of a free, 3-celled, and 3-ovuled ovary, a short sagrada. style, and a 3-lobed stigma. The fruit is a small black drupe, obtusely 3-angled, about the size of a large pea, and contains 3 black, shining seeds. The genus Rhamnus is represented by 6 native species, and all, excepting R. lanceolata, Pursh, and R. alnifolia, L'Heritier, are found on the Pacific coast. RHAMNUS PURSHIANA. 1655 A few of the western species have evergreen coriaceous leaves. Rhamnus cali. formica, Eschscholtz (Frangula californica, Gray), known as California buckthorn, or California coffee tree, probably furnishes a portion of the Cascara Sagrada of commerce (see Related Species). The bark of California mountain holly (Rhamnus crocea) is aromatic and bitterish, and has both tonic and laxative qualities. Cascara Sagrada was discovered by an Eclectic physician, Dr. J. H. Bundy, its virtues being first extolled in “New Preparations,” Detroit, 1877. Parke, Davis & Co. introduced the fluid extract to the medical profession and gave it great conspicuity. It may be confidently said that to their efforts is due the wide spread celebrity of this drug and its preparations. Description.—The bark is the part used in medicine, and has long been known in domestic practice among western people as a mild cathartic. Cascara Sagrada is officially described as “in quills or curved pieces, about 3 to 10 Cm. (1% to 4 inches) long, and about 2 Mm. (#3 inch) thick; outer surface brownish gray and whitish; the young bark having numerous, rather broad, pale-colored warts; inner surface yellowish to light brownish, becoming dark-brown by age; smooth or finely striate; fracture short, yellowish, in the inner layer of thick bark somewhat fibrous; inodorous; taste bitter”—(U. S. P.). Chemical Composition.— Prof. Prescott (Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1879, p. 165) de scribed the microscopical structure and the chemical composition of the bark, which he finds to contain : (1) A brown resin, bitter to the taste, soluble in alcohol, chloroform, benzol, and carbon disulphide; insoluble in ether; slightly soluble in water. Solution of caustic alkalies dissolve it with purple-red color, from which solution acids precipitate it. Charcoal removes it from its alcoholic solution. It occurs chiefly in the middle and inner layers of the bark. (2) A red resin, nearly tasteless, insoluble in water; slightly soluble in ether, chloroform, and carbon disulphide; soluble in alcohol, and in caustic alkali with a brown color. Animal charcoal does not remove it from its solution in alcohol. It occurs in the corky layer of the bark. (3) A light-yellow resin, neutral, tasteless, insoluble in water; soluble in hot alcohol, chloroform, and carbon disulphide; not colored by potassium hydroxide solution. In addition, Prof. Prescott obtained a tannic acid, oxalic acid, malic acid, a yellow fixed oil, volatile oil, wax, starch, and a neutral crystallizable body. The latter substance, from solution in absolute alcohol, crystallized in the form of white, double pyramids, which were almost insoluble in ether, chloroform, and petroleum ether; soluble in benzol. They melt and sublime, unchanged, at a temperature little above the heat of a water-bath, condensing into crystalline form. The substance does not give alkaloidal reactions. Prof. Prescott believes that some of these substances are closely related to constituents of Rhamnus frangula. P. Schwabe (Archiv der Pharm., 1888, p. 591) found the bark to contain emodim (C, HoH,) (see Rhubarb), but was unable to confirm the statement of Prof. W. T. Wenzell (1886), that a crystallizable glucosid (not identical with frangulim) is present in the bark (see Framgula). A. R. L. Dohme and H. Engelhardt (Proc. Amer. Pharm. Assoc., 1897, p. 198) succeeded, however, in isolating from cascara sagrada a glucosid, which they named purshiamim. Leprince, in 1892, obtained an orange-red substance, which he named cascarim (C, H, O.), and which F. L. Phipson (Comptes Rendus, 1892) believes identical with rhamnoramthin of Buchner (see Frangula). Messrs. H. F. Meier and J. LeRoy Webber (Pharmacology of the Newer Materia Medica, Detroit, 1892) found the bark to contain a ferment, occur ring especially in recent bark, and being destroyed by heat. To this principle, it is claimed, the unpleasant griping and vomiting effects of recent bark are due. The authors also state that a glucosid is present, which is not bitter, but yields a bitter principle upon hydrolysis with acids or the gastric juice. Dr. R. G. Eccles (Druggists' Circular, 1888, p. 54) reported the presence of an alkaloid in cascara bark. Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage.—Cascara Sagrada, when introduced as a medicine, was highly recommended as a certain remedy in cases of habitual com stipation, and in some forms of indigestion. Further trial, has substantially sus tained these assertions, and it is, undoubtedly, a valuable addition to our list of therapeutical agents. It does not, however, succeed in all cases, but acts best where a tonic to the intestines is required. As it tones the whole intestimal tract, 1656 RHAMNUS PURSHIANA. * it is valuable in doses of 10 drops, after meals, for that dyspeptic condition which depends most largely upon constipation, and is due to intestinal weakness. Ad ministered in large doses, it has served us nicely in sick headache, due to like causes. Loss of tone in the rectum, with constipation, giving rise to hemorrhoids, is benefited by it. In chronic constipation it may be necessary to begin with the larger doses, and gradually reduce the quantity to a few drops, 3 times a day, though, as a rule, it is better to give repeated small doses, gradually increased, until the desired action is obtained, and then to gradually withdraw the drug. It acts kindly without irritating or griping, and produces stools of a semifluid consistence. Occasionally, but rarely, have reports of harsh action been mºde, such as cramps, colic, vomiting, and inordinate catharsis, while a Soreness of the bowels, persistent in character, has been attributed to it. These effects, however, are not common. The remedy, in 10 to 15-drop doses, has been used with asserted success in rheumatism. Chronic diarrhoea, when due to hepatic sluggishness, has been checked by this agent, and it is said to be of some value in gastric, duode mal, and biliary catarrh, with jawndice. It is commonly prepared in the form of a fluid extract, the dose of which is from 10 to 60 minims, repeated, as required, 2 or 3 times a day. The powder may be given in 5-grain doses; the solid extract in 2 or 3-grain doses. Specific Indications and Uses.—Constipation, due to neglect or to nervous and muscular atomy of the intestinal tract; lesser ailments, depending solely upon constipation, with intestinal atomy.