Digestive – PreBiotic Powder

The Eclectic Materia Medica, Pharmacology and Therapeutics Written by Harvey Wickes Felter, M.D. 1922 - Burdock

Botanical name: Arctium lappa The root and seeds of Arctium Lappa, Linné (Nat. Ord. Compositae). Europe, Asia, and America. Dose, 5 to 60 grains. Common Name: Burdock. Principal Constituents.—The glucoside lappin, fixed oil, inulin, and an altered tannin called phlobaphene. Preparations.—1. Specific Medicine Lappa. Dose, I to 60 drops. 2 . Tinctura Lappae Seminis, Tincture of Lappa Seeds. (Seed, 4 ounces; 75 per cent Alcohol, 16 fluidounces.) Dose, 1 to 60 drops. Specific Indications.—Feeble cutaneous circulation; dry, scaly skin eruptions; aphthous ulcers; recurrent boils and styes; urinary irritation; psoriasis. Action and Therapy.—Lappa is a potent but neglected alterative and diuretic. It relieves urinary and bronchial irritation, favors the elimination of waste material, and secondarily proves tonic. Lappa is especially valuable in psoriasis, crusta lactea, stubborn eczema, obstinate ulcers, and in catarrhal and aphthous ulcerations. It is one of the best of agents for recurrent boils and styes. Bronchial cough, with much irritation of the pulmonary tract, is relieved by it, and it is sometimes beneficial in dyspepsia due to irritation of the stomach in cachectic individuals. As it gently stimulates the kidneys and promotes waste it should be largely used in strumous and cachectic conditions, with tendency to dry, scaly, cutaneous eruption and low grades of cellular inflammation, with feeble circulation in the skin.

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

Taraxacum. Tarax. [Dandelion]. "The dried rhizome and roots of Taraxacum officinale Weber (Fam. Compositae). Preserve the thoroughly dried drug in tightly-closed containers, adding a few drops of chloroform or carbon tetrachloride, from time to time, to prevent attack by insects." U. S. "Taraxacum Root is the fresh root of Taraxacum officinale, Wiggers. Collected in the autumn." Br. Taraxaci Radix, Br., Taraxacum Root; Dandelion Root, Blowball, Milk, Witch, or Yellow Gowan, Lion's-tooth, Cankerwort; Pissenlit, Dent de Lion, Fr. Cod.; Radix Taraxaci cum herba, P. G.; Löwenzahn, G.; Tarassaco, It.; Taraxacon, Diente de Leon, Sp. The dandelion is an herbaceous plant, with a perennial fusiform root. The leaves, which spring immediately from the short upright rhizome, are long, pinnatifid, generally runcinate, with the divisions toothed, smooth, and of a fine 'green color. The common name of the plant was derived from the fancied resemblance of its leaves to the teeth of a lion. The flower-stem rises from the midst of the leaves, six inches or more in height. It is erect, simple, naked, smooth, hollow, fragile, and terminated by a large golden-colored flower, which closes in the evening and expands with the returning light of the sun. The involucre is smooth and double, with the outer scales bent downward. The florets are very numerous, ligulate, and toothed at their extremities. The receptacle is flat and naked. The pappus is stipulate, and at the period of maturity is disposed in a spherical form, and is so light and feathery as to be easily borne away by the wind, with the achene attached. Another plant resembling the common dandelion, the achenes of which, however, are narrower and bright red or reddish brown, known as the red-seeded dandelion, is the product of T. erythrospermum, Andrz., and is supposed by some to be naturalized from Europe. The common dandelion, Taraxacum officinale, grows spontaneously in widely separated parts of the globe. It is abundant in this country, adorning our grass plots and pasture grounds with its bright yellow flowers, which, in moist places, show themselves with the first opening of spring, and continue to appear until near the close of summer. In India the plant is cultivated in various parts of the country, and its root collected for use between the months of September and February. (P. J., Dec. 1871, 523.) All parts of the plant contain a milky bitterish juice, which exudes when they are broken or wounded. The leaves, when very young and blanched by the absence of light during their growth, are tender and not unpleasant to the taste, and are sometimes used as a salad. When older and of their natural color, they are medicinal, but the leaves of the wild plant in various stages of its early growth are used for salads by those who have cultivated a taste for this vegetable. The Pharmacopoeias recognize only the root. It should be full grown when collected, and should be employed in the recent state, as it is then most active. It does not, however, as stated by Duncan, lose nearly all its bitterness by drying, and the root dug up in the warmer seasons might, if dried with care, be employed with propriety in the succeeding winter. The juice of the root is thin and watery in the spring; milky, bitter, and spontaneously coagulable in the latter part of summer and autumn, and sweet and less bitter in the winter when affected by the frost. The months of July, August, and September are, therefore, the proper periods for collecting it. Henry Barton, of Brighton, England, prepared the juice from the flower-stalks by crushing and pressure, adding 25 per cent. of spirit, and, after allowing it to stand for some weeks in glass bottles, filtering to separate a very small quantity of deposit, and setting aside for use. According to Barton, it remains bright, and retains its characteristic taste. Though not so rich in solid constituents as the juice of the root, yet, having an equal bitterness, it is probably not less efficacious as a medicine, if it be true, as stated by Bentley, that the efficacy of the medicine does not depend solely on the amount of its solid constituents, but principally if not entirely on the bitter principle it contains. Barton stated that the juice is certainly one of the best preparations of taraxacum. (A. J. P., 1872, p. 509.) Properties.—The official description of Taraxacum follows: "Cylindrical or somewhat flattened, gradually tapering, usually in broken pieces, from 6 to 15 cm. in length and from 5 to 15 mm. in thickness; externally brown or blackish-brown, longitudinally wrinkled, having numerous root and rootlet-scars; crown simple or branched with numerous leaf-bases showing annulate markings; odor slight or inodorous; taste bitter. Under the microscope, transverse sections of the root of Taraxacum show a porous, pale yellow wood from 1 to 4 mm. in diameter, surrounded by a light brown bark from 2 to 6 mm. in thickness, the latter composed of concentric layers of lacticiferous vessels and sieve tissues, alternating with whitish inulin-bearing parenchyma. The rhizome portions show a small pith. The powder is light brown; when examined under the microscope it exhibits parenchyma cells which are large, thin-walled and contain irregular masses of inulin; fragments with yellowish-brown lacticiferous vessels; trachea; reticulate; intermediate fibers non-lignified, with irregular, simple and oblique pores. Taraxacum yields not more than 10 per cent. of ash." U. S. "Fresh root frequently three decimetres or more long, and twelve millimetres or more thick, smooth and yellowish-brown externally, whitish within. Fracture short, the exposed surface showing a small yellow porous wood, surrounded by a thick nearly white cortex exhibiting a variable number of irregular concentric rings, from which a milky juice exudes. Inodorous; taste bitter." Br. Taraxacum should be free from the root of Cichorium Intybus Linné, which closely resembles it, but is usually paler, more bitter, and has the milk vessels in radiating lines. The drug consists in part of the rhizome which shows from ten to fifteen fibro-vascular bundles surrounded by the parenchyma-tissue of the pith, the diameter of which in some instances exceeds the thickness of the woody zone several times. In other respects the structure of the rhizome resembles the root, the concentric' arrangement of the lacticiferous ducts in particular excluding any possibility of mistaking the specimens for chicory, etc. (Am. Drug., 1887, p. 2.) The active properties of taraxacum are yielded to water by boiling, and do not appear to be injured in the process. Dragendorff obtained from the root gathered in October and dried at 100° C. (212° F.) 24 per cent. of inulin and some sugar. The root gathered in March from the same place yielded 1.74 per cent. of inulin, 17 of uncrystallizable sugar, and 18.7 of levulin. This last-named substance, discovered by Dragendorff, has the same composition as inulin, but dissolves in cold water, and is devoid of any rotatory power. Mannite, which has been found in the infusion of the root, has been demonstrated by Smith, of Edinburgh, not to pre-exist in the root, but to be formed by spontaneous changes consequent on exposure. A crystallizable principle has been extracted from the juice of the root by Pollex, who has named it taraxacin. It is bitter and somewhat acrid, fusible, but not volatile, sparingly soluble in cold water, but very soluble in boiling water, alcohol, and ether. It is obtained by boiling the milky juice in distilled water, filtering the concentrated liquor, and allowing it to evaporate spontaneously in a warm place. The taraxacin crystallizes, and may be purified by repeated solution and crystallization in alcohol or water. Kromayer (A. Pharm. (2), cv, 6) also obtained taraxacin, and, in addition, a second crystalline principle, taraxacerin, C8H16O, insoluble in water, but soluble in alcohol. According to Vogel, the infra-cellular substance of the root consists chiefly of pectose, which is the result of a metamorphosis of the substance constituting the membrane of the cells. L. E. Sayre found that the yield of taraxacin varies in roots collected at different seasons. (See Proc. A. Ph. A., 1893, 1894, 1895, 1896,1897.) F. B. Power (C. D., 1912, p. 822) contributed the results of some investigations of this drug, in which he states that besides inulin, resin and sugar, no definite substances have previously been isolated. The taraxacin of Polex (1839), and the taraxacerin of Kromayer (1861), to which was assigned the formula C40H80O5_ are both alleged to be definite mixtures. Power found in the air dried English root, an enzyme, essential oil, oily resin, fatty acids, including melissic, and p-hydroxy-phenylacetic acid, which had never before been isolated from a plant. The roots of various plants have been largely substituted for dandelion in England and on the Continent by the herb gatherers, and we are informed that fraudulent substitution is not unfrequent, in this country, of the root of Cichorium Intybus, or chicory. It is rare to find chicory mixed with dandelion, the former being usually boldly substituted for the latter. Uses.—Taraxacum was formerly supposed to possess cholagogic as well as diuretic powers. It has been used in various conditions accompanied with congested or torpid liver. There is, however, no sufficient reason for believing it possesses any therapeutic virtues. The dried root is sometimes mixed, in powder, with ground coffee, the taste of which covers that of the dandelion. It is roasted and powdered and then prepared in the same manner. Dose, one to three drachms (3.9-11.6 Gm.). Off. Prep.—Fluidextractum Taraxaci, U. S. (Br.); Extractum Taraxaci, U. S; Br.; Succus Taraxaci, Br.; Elixir Gentianae Glycerinatum, N. F.; Elixir Taraxaci Compositum, N. F.

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 - Elecampane

Inula, Elecampane.—The root,' official 1820- 1900; C. and S. Europe, C. Asia. Perennial herb, 1-2 M. (3-6°) high; stem thick, solid, striate, villous; leaves large, .3-.5 M. (10-18') long, 10-20 Cm. (4-8') wide, ovate, serrate, pubescent beneath, longpetioled, fleshy midrib; flowers large, 6 Cm. (2f) wide, single, goldenyellow. Root, dug in autumn of the second year, 15-30 Cm. (6-12') long, 18-25 Mm. (f-1') thick; usually in transverse, concave slices or longitudinal sections, with overlapping bark, wrinkled, brownish, fracture short, radiate, dotted, with resin-cells, free from starch; odor peculiar, aromatic; taste bitter, pungent; contains volatile oil, acrid resin, bitter principle, inulin, helenin, wax; solvents: alcohol, water partially. Stimulant, diaphoretic, diuretic, expectorant, emmenagogue, tonic; lung diseases, bronchitis, vesical catarrh, amenorrhcea, dyspepsia, GRINDELIA—GRINDELIA 603 COMPOSIT/E skin affections, dropsy, whooping-cough, diphtheria. Dose, 3ss-l (2-4 Gm.); decoction,' Bj-2 (30-60 Ml. (Cc.)); fltiidextract, 3ss-l (2-4 Ml. (Cc.)); infusion, 5 p. c., 5J-2 (3(Mi() Ml. (Cc.)). /. squar- ro'na; S. Europe. Leaves tomentose, rugose, ray-florets 3-cleft, tubular; emmenagogue, diuretic, powder burned to repel insects.

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 - Flax

Linni. | other seeds, foreign matter. Habitat. C. Asia, Egypt, S. Europe, spontaneous in most temperate countries; cultivated in Russia, Egypt; India, United States, S. Europe, England, Holland. Syn. Flaxseed, Flax, Lint-bells, Winter lien; Br. Lini Semina, Lini Semina Contusa (Crushed); Fr. Lin, Semence (Graine) de Lin; Ger. Semen Lini, Leinsamen, Flachssamen. Li'num. L. see etymology, page 325, of Linacea?. U-si-ta-tis'si-mum. L. sup. adj. fr. usitatus, most useful, common, familiar. Flax'seed. AS. fleax, flechten, to braid, plait, twist—i. e., its fibres, + seed. PLANT.—An annual; stem .6 M. (2°) high, stiff, erect, solitary, round, smooth, green; leaves small, lanceolate, acute, entire, sessile, pale green, 2-4 Cm. (f-lf) long; flowers June-July; terminal, bluish; fruit August, globular capsule, size of pea, with persistent calyx at base, crowned with sharp spine, 10-seeded in distinct cells. SEEDS, ovate, oblonglanceolate, flattened, obliquely pointed at one end, 3-5 Mm. (!-§') long; chestnutbrown, very smooth and shiny, raphe a distinct, light yellow ridge along one edge, easily cut with finger-nail; internally olivegreen; oily; odor slight; taste mucilaginous, oily. POWDER, light brown; microscopically —large oily globules and irregular fragments of endosperm and seed-coat, the latter characterized by pigment cells with brownish content and stone cells with yellowish walls; mounts in fat-free sample show aleurone grains. GROUND (linseed (flax- seed) meal, lini farina, crushed linseed), light olive-brown, with reddish-brown very coarse fragments; both degrees of fineness must be free from unpleasant or rancid odor. Tests: 1. Boil 1 Gm. fat-free (seeds, powder, meal) with water 50 Ml. (Cc.), cool—filtrate + iodine T. S. not more than faint blue color (abs. of starch). 2. Extract (powder) with purified petroleum benzin—yields 30 p. c. of fixed oil, of which 98 p. c. is saponifiable. Solvent: boiling water. Dose, 5J-2 (4-8 Gm.). ADULTERATIONS.—SEEDS: Foreign seeds and earthy matter 1-25 p. c.—mustard, rape and other cruciferous seeds, sand, small stones; POWDER: Damaged flour, cornmeal, other starchy substances, recog nized by microscope or iodine test; expressed cake and that to which mineral oil has been added. Commercial.—The flax is of ancient origin, being prized for its fabric and medicinal properties; most of our seeds now come from Russia Fia. 208.—Linum usitatis simum. LINUM—LINSEED 327 LINACE/E and Germany, but the United States furnishes considerable. When exposed to heat, light, damp atmosphere, or otherwise carelessly pre served, especially the ground, it is subject to insect attack, and should not be used after 1 year old. CONSTITUENTS.—Fixed oil 35-40 p. c. (in nucleus), Mucilage, CijHjoOio, 15 p. c. (in integuments—viscid, odorless, nearly tasteless, precipitated by alcohol, lead subacetate, but not by tannin), proteids 25 p. c., tannin, amygdalin (resin, wax, sugar, no starch (except in young seeds), ash 4-6 p. c.—phosphates, sulphates, chlorides of potas sium, calcium, magnesium). Oleum Lini. Linseed Oil. official.—(Syn., Ol. Lini, Oil of Flaxseed, Raw Linseed Oil; Fr. Huile de Lin; Ger. Leinol, Leinsamenol.) This fixed oil, usually obtained by drying the seeds with heat, crushing, and expressing, is a yellowish, oily liquid, peculiar odor, bland taste; gradually thickens and darkens on exposure, acquiring a strong odor and taste; slightly soluble in alcohol, miscible with ether, chloroform, petroleum benzin, carbon disnlphide, oil of turpentine; slightly acid ; sp. gr. 0.930, congeals at—20° C. (—4° F.) ; consists of liquid glycerides of oleic acid, Ci8H^O2 (5), linoleic acid, Ci8H32O2 (15), linolenic acid, Ci8H3oO2 (15), and isolinoleic acid, CuHffiOz ((55) 85-90 p. c., also a mixture of palmitin, myristin, and stearin 10-15 p. c.; also claimed to consist chiefly of linolic acid, 22-25 p. c. of linolenic acid, and 5 p. c. of fatty acids; 1 p. c. of non-saponifiable matter. a b Linolein, the glyceride of linoleic acid, Fio. 209. — Flaxseed: a, entire, is considered the drying constituent, which on exposure is converted into 65 diam. oxylinoleic acid hydrate, and finally into linoxyn, C^I^On (insoluble in ether, and soon forms in the boiled oil). Yield by cold process 16-20 p. c., by heat 25-28 p. c., the latter being darker, with stronger odor and more acid taste. Impurities: Free acid, non-drying oils, mineral or rosin oils, rosin, Should be kept in well-stoppered containers, and that which has been "boiled" must not be used nor dispensed. Dose, 5ss-2 (15-60 Ml. (Cc.)). PREPARATIONS.—OIL: 1. Linimentum Calcis, 50 p. c. 2. Liquor Cresolis Compositus, 30 p. c. Unoff. Preps.: SEEDS. Infusion,5p.c, Compound Infusion, 5 p. c., + licorice root 2 p. c. These were once official and are effective from the dissolved mucilage of the epithelium (testa), which is altered starch. Dose, ad libitum. Decoction, 5 p. c. Poultice. PROPERTIES.—Demulcent, emollient, diluent, diuretic. USES.—Infusion or tea for inflammation of mucous membranes of respiratory, digestive, and urinary organs, renal and vesical irritation, catarrh, dysentery, calculi, strangury. Decoction, owing to the oil it contains, is less acceptable to the mouth, but all the better for enema. 328 ORGANIC DRUGS FROM THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM Poultice of ground meal to enlarged glands, swellings, boils, pneumonia, etc., made by adding boiling water to meal for proper consistency and bringing to a boil. Should coat skin with glycerin, olive or other oil before applying, and place as near to affected spot as possible; may cover with oiled silk to retain heat and moisture, and may add olive oil, lard, laudanum or any anodyne, stimulating, or astringent solution to poultice. The oil is laxative (5j; 30 Ml. (Cc.)), excellent in piles (3J-2; 30-60 Ml. (Cc.) night and morning); sometimes it is added to purgative enemata, also to cover erysipelatous and irritated skin surfaces, but with the disadvantages of soon drying (thus rendering skin stiff) and becoming sour and irritating. The linimentum calcis is applied to recent burns to allay irritation. Allied Products: 1. Flaxseed Cake, Oil-cake.—Flaxseed when ground yields cake- meal, and this, after being deprived of oil, becomes oil-cake; it still contains all of the nitrogen, 4-5 p. c., and, moreover, a little oil, thus serving well as a cattle food ; yields ash 5-8 p. c. 2. Boiled Linseed Oil—Obtained by heating oleum lini to 130° C. (2(56° F.), while passing a current of air through it, when it boils, losing 6-8 p. c. by weight; or may heat and add litharge, red lead] manganese dioxide, lead acetate or manganous borate, thereby increas ing the oil's weight and drying properties. It is darker in color, thicker, sp. gr. 0.939-0.950, and dries faster, hence useful in painting, varnish ing, etc., ^but must never be used in liniments as a substitute for the official ("raw") oil, since irreparable injury (from forming crusts) might be occasioned to burns, etc., in removing dressings. 3. Flax Liber-fibres.—These furnish linen, which, when scraped, gives lint, while the primitive short fibre is useful as tow.

The Elements of Materia Medica and Therapeutics, Vol. II, 3th American ed., was written by Jonathan Pereira in 1854 - Garlic

Botanical name: Allium sativum Sex. Syst. Hexandria, Monogynia. (Bulb, E.) History.—This plant was well known to the ancients. The Greeks called it σκόροδον; [Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. lib. vii. cap. iv.; Dioscorides, lib. ii. cap. 182.] the Romans Allium. [Pliny, Hist. Nat. lib. xix. cap. 31, ed. Valp.] It was used by Hippocrates. [De victus ratione in acutis, p. 404, ed. Foesii.] Botany. Gen. Char.—Flowers umbellate, with a membranous spathe. Perianth six-parted, permanent, equal. Stamens inserted into the base of the perianth; filaments either all alike, or every other one tricuspidate, with the anther on the middle point. Style subulate, stigma simple. Capsule usually obtusely three-cornered or three-lobed, depressed, three-celled, bursting into three valves through the dissepiments, and containing two or one black angular seed in each cell. (Lindley.) Sp. Char.—Bulb surrounded by smaller ones. Leaves linear, entire. Umbel bulbiferous, globose. Spathe ovate, rounded. Segments of the perianth ovate, obtuse. Pistil and stamens exsert. [De Candolle, Bot. Gall.] Stem about two feet high. Flowers whitish. Hab.—?South of Europe. ?Egypt. ?Persia. Cultivated in kitchen gardens. It flowers in July. Description.—The bulb (bulbus allii) is composed of cloves (spicae vel nuclei allii), each furnished with its proper envelopes. Its odour is strong, irritating, and characteristic; its taste is acrid. Composition.—Cadet [Gmelin, Handb. d. Chem. ii. 1336.] analyzed garlic. He found the constituents to be acrid volatile oil, extractive (a little), gum, woody fibre, albumen, and water. The ashes contained alkaline and earthy salts. Bouillon-Lagrange has detected, besides these, sulphur, starch, and saccharine matter. [Journ. de Pharm. t. ii. p. 358.] Oil of Garlic (Oleum Allii) is a sulphuret of allyle, AllS=C6H5,S (see vol. i. p. 253). According to Wertheim, [Ann. d. Chem. u. Pharm. Bd. li. S. 289, 1844; Pharmaceutical Journal, vol. iv. p. 325, 1845.] oxide of allyle, AllO=C6H5,O, also exists in the crude oil. Oil of garlic has a very acrid taste, a strong smell, and a yellow colour. It is heavier than water, and is soluble in alcohol. As it contains sulphur it produces, in burning, sulphurous acid. According to Cadet, 20 lbs. of garlic yielded only six drachms of essential oil; Wertheim obtained between three and four ounces from 1 cwt of garlic. It strikes a black colour when rubbed with oxide of iron. It is a powerful irritant, and when applied to the skin causes irritation. The Hindoos, according to Dr. Ainslie, [Materia Indica, i. 151.] prepare a stimulating expressed oil from garlic, which they give internally in ague, and use externally in palsy and rheumatism. Physiological Effects.—Garlic is a local irritant. When swallowed, it operates as a tonic and stimulant to the stomach. Its volatile oil becomes absorbed, quickens the circulation, occasions thirst, and is thrown out of the system by the different excretories, the activity of which it promotes, and to whose excretions it communicates its well-known odour. Large doses occasion nausea, vomiting, and purging. Puihn [Quoted by Wibmer, Die Wirk. d. Arzneim.] says the expressed juice has proved fatal. Uses.—Employed by the cook as a flavouring ingredient in various made-dishes, sauces, &c. Rarely used by the medical practitioner. Internally, it has been exhibited as a stimulant and stomachic in enfeebled digestion; as an expectorant in old chronic catarrhs; as a diuretic in atonic dropsies; and as an anthelmintic. Externally, it has been employed as a resolvent in indolent tumours; as a local irritant or rubefacient applied to the feet to cause revulsion from the head or chest; as an antispasmodic liniment (composed of oil and garlic juice) in infantile convulsions; as a remedy for some cases of deafness, a clove or a few drops of the juice being introduced into the ear. Administration.—A clove may be swallowed either entire, or, more conveniently, cut into small pieces. The dose of the fresh bulbs is one or two drachms. The expressed juice mixed with sugar, the infusion of garlic, and a syrup, are sometimes employed. [SYRUPUS ALLII.—Take of fresh Garlic, sliced, six ounces; diluted Acetic Acid a pint; Sugar two pounds. Macerate the garlic in the diluted acetic acid in a glass vessel for four days, then express the liquor, and set it by that the dregs may subside. Add the sugar to the clear liquor, and proceed in the manner directed for syrup. This formula was adopted upon the recommendation of Mr. Daniel B. Smith, of Philadelphia, who demonstrated the futility of the old method of preparing syrup of garlic, of which formula (Journal of Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, No. 1, p. 50) it is a modification. Dose, ʒi.]

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

Botanical Source.—Avena sativa, or the common oat, has a smooth stem, from 2 to 4 feet high, with linear-lanceolate, veined, rough leaves, with loose, striate sheaths; the stipules are lacerate; the panicle equal and loose; the spikelets pedunculate, pendulous, 2-flowered, both flowers being perfect, the lower one mostly awned; the paleae are somewhat cartilaginous, closely embracing the caryopsis; the root is fibrous and annual. History.—Oats have been noticed by the ancient Greek and Roman writers; at present they are cultivated in nearly all northern temperate latitudes. Their native country is unknown, though they are stated to be indigenous in Sicily and in a certain Chilian island. When the seed is stripped of all its teguments, including its innermost, silky, fibrous covering it constitutes groats; and when this is ground into fine meal or flour it is called prepared groats. When the seed is kiln-dried, stripped of its husk and delicate outer skin, and then coarsely ground it constitutes the oatmeal of Scotland, a common, farinaceous article of food for laboring people and children (C). Many forms of "rolled oats" are now a general article of commerce, forming excellent cereal foods. Oats are largely in America as food for horses and cattle. American oatmeal is said to be inferior to the foreign preparations. Chemical Composition.—Vogel found oats to contain 66 per cent of meal and 34 per cent of husk; the dried meal consists of starch, 59; saccharo-mucilaginous extract, 10.75; albumen, 4.3; oleaginous matter, 2; ligneous fiber and moisture, 24 (T.—C.). Other analyses have been made, which vary from the above in quantity and elements, showing oats to consist of a large proportion of starch, some sugar, gum, oil, albumen, gluten, a nitrogenous body, epidermis, alkaline salts, etc. M. Payen found oats to contain starch, 60.59 parts; gluten and other azotized matters, 14.39; dextrin, glucose, or congenerous substances, 9.25; fatty matters, 5.50; cellulose, 7.06; silica, phosphates of calcium, magnesium, and soluble salts of potassium and sodium, 3.25 (P.). A large proportion of the nitrogenous material consists of avenin, a body containing a large proportion of nitrogen to a small amount of oxygen (about 17 to 1). With solvents it behaves much like legumin, which it resembles. It may be obtained from oatmeal by treating the latter, at a low temperature, with a dilute solution of caustic potash, decanting the clear liquid and precipitating the impure avenin by means of acetic acid. To purify it wash it first with diluted alcohol; then, with concentrated alcohol, dissolve again in a dilute solution of potassium hydroxide, and treat again with acetic acid, when avenin will be precipitated (Kreusler). Oatmeal.—AVENAE FARINA. Oatmeal is odorless, or has but little odor, is not so white as wheat flour, and has a somewhat bitterish taste. Particles of the integument may be observed in it, and it contains the gluten of the oat. Its starch-cells are polyhedral, having a checkered appearance, and are usually aggregated into ovoid or subspherical masses, easily separable under pressure. It is insoluble in alcohol, ether, and the oils; but the first two remove an oleo-resinous matter from it. Water removes its nourishing principles when boiled with it. Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage.—I. AVENAE FARINA. Oatmeal is nutritive and demulcent. Good in habitual constipation, but not in dyspepsia accompanied with acidity of the stomach. In the form of gruel, either salted or seasoned with sugar, honey, or the pulp of fruit, it is an agreeable nutritive during convalescence from acute diseases, in the puerperal state and in some chronic diseases. Ɣ Oatmeal made into a cake with water, baked and browned like coffee, then pulverized and made into a coffee, or infusion, forms a drink which will allay nausea and check vomiting in a majority of cases when all other means fail, and used thus is very useful in diarrhoea, dysentery, cholera morbus, and irritable conditions of the stomach. One ounce of oatmeal in 2 quarts of water, boiled down to 1 quart and then strained, forms a very nutritive gruel. It may be rendered more palatable by the addition of vegetable acids, aromatics, sugar, prunes, raisins, etc. II. AVENA SATIVA.—This plant is a nerve-tonic, stimulant, and antispasmodic. It ranks among the most important restoratives for conditions depending upon nervous prostration, and for the nervous exhaustion consequent upon typhoid and other low fevers, and the accidental disorders arising from these complaints, as weak heart, spermatorrhoea, insomnia, etc. In enfeebled states of the heart muscle it acts as a good tonic to improve the energy of the organ, and is recommended by Prof Webster to prevent relapsing cardiac rheumatism. In this condition it is not thought to be specially antirheumatic, but rather to strengthen that debility upon which the rheumatic diathesis depends, so that the patient is less subject to atmospheric and other impressions. In spermatorrhoea it is adapted to those cases of debility following adynamic diseases, or in simple spermatorrhoea when not due to self-abuse. The atonic state gives rise to a nervous erethism or an enervated condition favorable to nocturnal losses. In cases depending wholly or partially upon prostatic irritation it is of less value, but aids staphisagria, sabal, salix nigra aments, and other indicated remedies Spasmodic conditions of the neck of the bladder are said to be relieved by it. A few years ago it was much lauded as a remedy to assist the morphine-consumer to throw off the habit, and to sustain the nervous system while undergoing that ordeal. We have, however, found it to exert but little good in this direction. A strong tincture may be prepared by crushing or pounding to a pulp the entire oat-plant when the grain is "in the milk," covering with strong alcohol and allowing it to macerate 14 days. The dose is from 10 to 30 drops in hot water; specific avena, 1 to 20 drops every 2 or 3 hours; Keith's concentrated tincture, 1 to 25 drops. This remedy was introduced by B. Keith & Co. Specific Indications and Uses.—Nerve tonic, stimulant, and antispasmodic. Spasmodic and nervous disorders, with exhaustion; cardiac weakness; nervous debility of convalescence; spermatorrhoea from the nervous erethism of debility; tensive articular swellings.